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Show -O"' CHINESE POST OFFICES. ' The recent transfer of the postal service of China from the maritime customs to the Ministry of Communications Communi-cations under the Chlneso government govern-ment is a mark of the government's progress toward administrative independence inde-pendence of foreign control nnd supervision. sup-ervision. Sir Robert Hart, the English Eng-lish head of the customs, was placed In chargo of tho postal service when It was flrBt established by Imperial decree de-cree In 1890. Its main expansion and development began in J901, oftor the. Boxer uprising, and the past decade has seen a marvelous growth in the IH I Wa II IflllllBM miHMIIIIIiaill MHIIIIWll II I J 1 1 TWTil " ' " ' department In 1001 there ere but 170 postoflices open in China, In 1910 there were 5152. In 1901 the malls carried but 10,500,000 letters and packages, in 1010 the number had risen to 355,000.000. Every branch has grown In the same proportion, nnd the future promises to make the postal pos-tal business of the past ten years seem meager Indeed The postal rates are tho cheapest in the world, and the people are enthusiastic over the facilities the service offers. Tho mails, which arc still for the most part carried by couriers, now pass from the Yellow sea lo Kashgar In Chinese Turkestan, and froin tho Amur river in the north to Tohgklng in the south An overland route is being established also between Keklng and the capital of Tlbot Mounted mall carriers cross the Gobi desert In seven days, but a motor car service ser-vice will soon be provided for the desert route The service Is in its infancy, in-fancy, and Its complete development will exercise an enormous Influence, second onlv to the bulldlnc: of railroads rail-roads in bringing the mass of the Chinese people Into touch with various parts of their own country and into close relations with the outside world. Springfield (Mass.) Republl- w "van. |