Evening star., 1925-01-18
FOREIGN POSTAL ORDERS
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN

| there received payment in the money
| of their own country-lire.
Orders drawn on France or Great
| Britain are, as stated, given directly
| to the senders to be mailed to the
! payees who present them to their
post offices and receive payment as
soon as the advices arrive from the
| United States.
| These operations are reversed for
! orders issued in foreign countries and
| payable in the United States, but the
| aggregate volume OF business trans
acted is always much greater for or
ders issued here payable abroad than
| for those coming into the United
! States. AS a consequence the Post
Office Department constantly owes
| the foreign countries for paying our
| orders a greater sum than they owe
| US for paying theirs. To settle these
| balances 1t is NECESSARY for the United
| States to find some method OF paying
| the foreign postal administrations,
| and this Is done usually by the pur-
| chase of bills of exchange through
financial institutions.
An Exchange of Debts.
These bills of exchange are or
| dinary incidentals to international
commerce. Some merchant in a
foreign land purchases goods in the
! United States. Instead of paying
| cash he issues a bill of exchange
as an evidence OF his indebtedness
| and a guarantee of payment. These
evidences of Indebtedness are bought
! by the Post Office Department and
forwarded to the foreign country to
| offset the debts which we owe it on
account of the money orders they have
paid for us. Thus, there is an eX-
| change of debts instead of an ex-
change of cash. and the Government
! actually secures the transmittal and
payment of money without sending
a penny out of the country.
Great care must be exercised by
postal officials not to sell interna-
| tional money orders at a lower rate
than it is possible to buy these bills
of exchange, otherwise we would lose
money. On the other hand, in fair
ness to the patrons of the service
| the rate must be kept as nearly that
| of the banks as safety will allow,
otherwise Johns folks might not get
their fair equivalent in lire for the
$50 he intrusted to the post office.
To insure this desirable result, two
plans are employed. The first COM
prises agreements with certain
foreign countries at the rate prevail
ing on the day the lists of advices
arrive at the foreign exchange office.
This insures the greatest possible re-
turn for cash intrusted to us by the
sender, but a decided disadvantage
| lies in the fact that he does not know
the exact amount in foreign money
| that will be paid.
When dealing with countries which
have not seen At to enter into such
an agreement, the United States Post
| Office must make the conversion into
| foreign money at the time the order
| is issued. This system makes neces-
sary the supplying of information on
current exchange rates to more than
$4,000 international money order Of
fees scattered over the immense ter
ritory of the United States.
However, the difficulties in this re-
spect have almost entirely been over
come by the present Third Assistant
Postmaster General, w. Irving Glover
who devised plan whereby certain
large Offices notify all international
Offices within a certain area OF
changes In conversion rates. These
large offices are advised by telegraph
when the Postmaster General, by or
ders, changes the rates, and in turn
advise the other Offices by circular
In this manner 1t is possible to make
change in rate effective within ID
hours