The St. Kilda folk are keen theologians, and the struggle between the “United” and the “Wee Free” Churches interested them keenly. They were “Wee Frees” almost to a man. [Illustration] The mail boat does not always reach its destination. Three were sent off on the same date, and two were never heard of again. The third was picked up at Dunrossness, in Shetland, after having drifted for two months and a day. But the letters, though sadly damaged by the sea, were duly posted at Lerwick. There is, of course, great excitement in St. Kilda when a tourist steamer arrives. The resources of the little post office, which is only a bare room with a table and desk, are severely strained. The inward mail is never a heavy one, but the outgoing one on these occasions is quite imposing. All the tourists bring on shore postcards and letters to obtain the coveted St. Kilda postmark. The postmaster has a busy time, and the post office is open for quite an hour, an unusual event in the island. There are still narrow seas in the British Isles where the sailing vessel holds the mail contract, just as there are still inland districts where the mail coach survives. Between the mainland of Shetland and Fair Isle, the mails are carried once a fortnight by sailing vessel, and there are similar services between Shetland and Foula, and between Mallaig and Knoydart on the west coast of Scotland. I have said nothing as yet about the oldest ocean mail route in the Kingdom, the narrow channel between Dover and Calais. By far the largest amount of foreign correspondence still goes this way. India, Australasia, China, and Japan mails as well as European cross the Straits of Dover, and as a mail station Dover is second to none. Mails go also by British contract _via_ Harwich and the Hook of Holland, and Newhaven and Dieppe, but the quantity is comparatively small. There is also a Belgian Government service between Dover and Ostend, and a Dutch Company's mail service between Queenborough, Folkestone, and Flushing. The Admiralty Pier at Dover has been facetiously called “the pier of the realm,” but there is a truth underlying the play on the word. The connection between the Post Office and the Admiralty has always been very close since the days of the Packet Service, but until recent years the Admiralty was not much in evidence at Dover, and the description of the pier would have been more fittingly “the Post Office Pier.” The Admiralty has now, however, with the completed harbour works, entered into possession; but the Post Office is still a working partner. CHAPTER XVI THE POSTAL UNION