New-York tribune., 1906-07-15
MOROCCO POSTOFFICES.
A Cosmopolitan System Established
ThrOughOut Country.

Not the least interesting OF the institutions OF the
Sultanate of Morocco is the postal service of that
country. AS the government of the reigntng Sui
tan, Nlulai-Abd-elAziz provided neither postofices
nor postage stamps, postmen, except in the
of few local services. certain foreign powers
having dealings with Morocco decided to supply
the absence of such very necessary accommodation
by establishing their own postof1ces. Thus IN
The Little Socco," the boulevard of Tangier,
Great Britain. France, Spain and Germany have
each its postoh1ce, which bear the re-
spective titles of British Postoff1ce, ''Poste
Francaise,' "CorreO Espanol' and 'Deutsche
Reichspost7 The establishment Of postofice at
Tang.er, and also that of postal service betWesn
Tangier and Fee. the university town, one OF the
sacred cities Of Islam and the starting 2olnt IoF
caravans going TO Ilmouctoo ana the lntSLloI %
Africa, were both due 10 the energy OF French-
therefor from the government of Morocco N 1888.
Shortly afterward the. British and Spanish gov
ian Germany followed their example for the enter
nriSine German traveller was beginning to open
trade with Morocco. OF the four powers thus in
ciyiiizaiion n Great Britaia and Spain have not
opened any postofices i'll the Interior while France
Offices work ng at Casablanca, F5lKsar. Fez La
rache, Marrakeck. Mazagan. Mogador RohDat'
Every day the .Petago' delivers at the Spanish
postofce at Tanger. and distributes them at once
the letters arriving from Great Britain FTanSie; dSi
spain Enc GerWsny eIada9 snd Fridav and Aiee
ciras every tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
between Gibraltar and Tangier while France has
similar service freH Marseilles to TangIer; Inc
sion only registered letters ana letters Of dsSaTe6
and German postofices in the interior are dis
patched from Tangier by service OF .'rakkas: OF
roads and no vehicles to be used upon them. These
!.rakIas' are Moors, sinewy vigorous and capable
OF great endurance. Their only apparel consists OF
oiiskin and their only weapon is l!notty stick ok
cut by swiftly flowing streams quite ignOTanff i f Or
bridges, these extraordinary postmen take only IOur
days to carTy ca s {nf & a oWer 1r9 ther pay is gem
erous for a man receives from g to guineas lot
NJ Mennevee, writing IN the Echo de la Tim
broIogie draws attention to the curious fact that
GERMANY. the latest conner has created special
staff for dealing with the postal service In MO- MO-
service in the hands of its consular ofticials It IS
not surprising to learn hat Geran IA he Frsneb n
difference. and it happens frequently that levers @
are thirty-six and even forty-eight hours ahead
Of those which have been intrusted 70 the @ treacn
postal service That the methods of the German
postofices are excellent is seen in the fact that
during the ten years Of its existence ended with
1908 the German postofice carried fewer than
existence, and this would come at the rate Of
Just Under f9r Ten the Iine along whch
nations advance nowadays toward the conquest of
that the French authorities should have allowed
another nation. with certainly incompaTably
gained such a strong foothold IN Morocco Is the
fern Of THE flag follows the stamp?'
Finally. a few words as to the postage stamps
used by the four powers, who have taken into
their own hands the postal service Of Morocco.
Great Britain has used in Morocco since 1898 the
ordinary stamps Of Gibraltar surcharged with the
words Morocco Agencies in two lines; the first
stamps used bv France were the Peace and Com
merce' type issue of 1876. bearing only the value
surcharged in centimos or nesetas; then came the
French issue of 10000. with inscription modified
for use in the various French Dostofices abroad.
such as those Of Port Said Crete, Alexandria, Le
want Marco, etc; in the case of Morocco the
stamps are surcharged in eentimos and .pesetas,
as before In 1903 Spain issued only few
charged stamps bearing the words, 'Correo Es-
panoi. NIarruecos' in two slanting lines. In 1899
Germany began to the surcharged stamps Of
its issue of 1889 with the value in centmOs and
nesetas and later issues of the "Reichspost" and
''Deutsches Reich types have been surcharged In
the same Way.-IIondon Globe