The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-06-03
Foreigners Oppose Change In Chinese
 Postoffice System
By EDNA LEE BOOKER, Internationa News Service Staff


 Shanghai. June 3-News that the Far Eastern Committee has passed a resolution to abandon the Foreign Postal Agencies in China comes as a China. and while many believe that the Chinese Government is capable of handling the mail which comes here from all countries in the world others are DeSSimistic.
 Mail from home' is one of the greatest features in the lives of the missionaris and business people Iw- ing in the Far East and every letter, magazine, parcel and picture postal card is guarded jealously
 The days when the ocean liners from Europe, America and Australia arrive bringing '1hone mail' are red letter occasions. Any change which may cause the mail to be delayed lost or miscarried is looked upon with great disfavor.
 Harry Lives for Letters
 Young Harry Jones. who comes out to China for lone of the great busi- ness houses lives for the letters from fhis little girl back hone''- that is until he falls in love with a girl tour Brown, with two boys at college in the States, count the days between mail boats; Miss Mary Jane Smith little school teacher who came to the womanhood of the Orient-grows heart hungry for letters from her home telling her that mother is well and fathers rheumatism as better. While the personal letters are impor- tant in keeping up the morale of the Americans and Europeans living in a strange land prompt delivery of business letters is of far greater inn portance, as they involve hundreds and thousands of dollars.
 Wbat about the Chinese Postal Service?
 The 1l21 report of the working of I CvL,5- published in Chinese and English. It tells a romantic story of the millions of letters and packages which are being carried from shang- hai thousands and thousands of miles across China, the Gobi Desert, Chi nese Turkestan to the borders of In- dia and Russia.
 Foot Couriers Used
 The total length of its mall lines to over 233, 900 miles, and two-thirds of the lines are traversed by swift foot couriers alone.
 Wearing the regulation uniform of the Chinese Postal Service-a ser vice which has made marvellous pro- gress during the past twenty-four year0the fleet couriers run like the wind over mountain passes. through the rice fields. along river banks for miles to the next station, where a second courier takes the mailbag and "carries on''.
  bandits, storms, accidents, the cou- riers run with the mail until it is delivered. Oftentimes the couriers run miles carrying one peter or pack age which will bring cheer to the family working in the heart of a Chinese city of to busi- ness man, the representative of a great house, with station far in the interior of China
 Slow Mail Delivery
 Mail is distributed from Shanghai by the Chinese Post Office through out this vaet country. It is difficult to realize that the mail Is carried by foot couriers, houseboats, launches, civer steamers, wheeibarrow, bicycle, nulepack, carts, camels, railway (only 15, 900 miles).
 According to the statistics just ts- sued, the number of articles of mail posted during the year exceeds four hundred millions, the number of par cels four and one-ha1f millions; the total value of money orders issued during the year amounted to fifty nine million dollars, while the num- Der of additional places provided with postal facilities in the course of he year was S.918. The total number of places in China now provided with postal facilities is 31 ,2i75.