half
an ounce, at the rate of one penny each. Such letters had to be
superscribed with the name of the seaman or soldier, his class and
description, the name of the ship or regiment to which he belonged;
and if they were the writers of the letters, they had to be
countersigned by the officer commanding. When this regulation was not
complied with letters were charged as ordinary, and postmarked with
_Fig._ 47.

[Illustration: 47]

No doubt there are many more postmarks with a naval interest,
including those valued by collectors as indicating stamps on letters
originating in the various naval stations abroad from 1858 to 1870,
recognised by the following letters and numbers:--

A79 to A89. Pacific Naval Stations.

A90 to A99. Atlantic Naval Stations.

B03, B12, B56. African Naval Stations.

B53 (Mauritius), B62 and C79 (Hong Kong), B64 (Seychelles).

Also "B", "H", and the date stamp in the case of "Ascension".

In the present war the naval postmarks promise to be of exceptional
interest. The postmarks for both Army and Navy give no clue to the
locality in which the correspondence originates; this, of course,
applies to mails coming from the field or area of operations; there
is no occasion to disguise place of origin of letters going out to
sailors or soldiers. Most of the naval marks at present in use bear no
inscriptions of any kind, though there is a type inscribed Fleet Post
Office (_Fig._ 48).

[Illustration: 48]

Even the machine cancellation, doubtless used in some large centre
of naval concentration, has had bars (or type turned base upwards) in
lieu of the lettering and date (_Fig._ 49).

[Illustration: 49. _Machine Cancellation_ (_Navy_).]

Other naval marks introduced in the present campaign, in accordance no
doubt with a secret code, are in various devices, such as a propeller,
a target, and various arrangements of rings, etc. (_Figs._ 50-57).

[Illustration: 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 54A. 57A.]

CHAPTER II.

INDIAN ARMY POSTAL SERVICE--China Expeditionary Force--British
Railway Administration in China--Somaliland--The Forbidden
City of Lhassa--Indian Expeditionary Force in France.

The Army Postal Service forms a highly organised branch of the Indian
Army organisation. It dates from 1878-1880, when, during the Afghan
War, a mail cart route was set up between Peshawar and Jellalabad, and
a horse post was conducted thence to Kabul, in all about