st of transmission by sea of a foreign letter in the British service
is on the average 1/4d. Foreign rates are not, however, fixed on a
simple cost basis. The reduction to a penny of the letter rate between
Great Britain and all parts of the British Empire; between Great
Britain, Egypt, and the United States; and between the United States and
Germany and France, has been made from considerations of general
advantage, political or otherwise, rather than from considerations of
immediate profit or loss on the postal service.

The international parcel post has always been regarded as primarily
commercial,[657] and the service has been deliberately restricted to
small parcels on the ground that the conduct of an ordinary
transportation undertaking is not a postal function, and that the
admission of heavy parcels would render impossible the maintenance of
the postal principle of uniformity of rate. Parcel mails are in the
international service frequently denied the privilege of rapid
transmission accorded to letter mails.[658] The developments of the
present war have emphasized the essential distinction to be drawn
between communications on the one hand, and packages of goods sent by
parcel post on the other.

* * * * *

The general basis of postal rates is naturally affected in some degree
by the fact that the Post Office is a State undertaking, and the
propriety of Government control deserves consideration. Adam Smith,
with his individualistic leaning, was bound to touch on the question of
a State Post Office. He thought there was no objection to the conduct of
the Post Office by the Government,[659] and economists since his day
have generally followed his view.[660] This acceptance of State control
as theoretically justifiable has probably been induced by the logic of
facts rather than by the recognition of any peculiar characteristics
tending to that view discoverable in the postal service as an industrial
organization.[661]

The transmission and delivery of letters for private individuals may
have some affinity to the transmission of official despatches, but in
theory such affinity is slight, especially in regard to the transmission
and delivery of local letters. Because the Government had found it
essential for its own purposes to establish a system of posts, it did
not necessarily follow that the Government must assume also the function
of conveying letters for private individuals. Bu