any number of imaginary relatives and opening accounts in all their names. He can deposit the maximum in each account, and naturally in times of crisis or when money is tight the Savings Bank has to face the immediate withdrawal of all these amounts. As one example of what is done, a case came to light some years ago in which a depositor at Dharwar was authorized to operate on eighty-three accounts with a balance of nearly Rs.30,000. He was a broker by profession and it was quite possible for him to control a balance of Rs.2,00,000 in the Post Office, if he wished to do so. Further inquiries made at the time elicited that one depositor at Bijapur controlled forty-two accounts, another at Surat thirty, and another at Karwar nineteen. Such persons are really speculators and are a danger to the Savings Bank, and it would be interesting to know what proportion they hold of the total deposits in the Bombay Circle. These deposits represent a very high proportion of the total in India, so that the action of any strong body of depositors in Bombay has a very serious effect on the balance of the Savings Bank. The examination of transactions for the thirty years previous to 1914 has this satisfactory result that, with the exception of the undesirable element in Bombay, a political crisis, at any rate, seems to have no marked influence upon the great mass of depositors in India. The number of depositors on the 31st March, 1914, was 1,638,725 with a balance of Rs.23,16,75,000. The outbreak of the war with Germany, however, had a disastrous effect on the Savings Bank balances. When the announcement was made that the German Government had temporarily confiscated the Savings Bank deposits in that country, a regular panic ensued and within a few months about 100 millions of rupees were withdrawn. The action of the Government of India, however, in meeting all claims in full did a great deal to allay public fears, and a certain amount of money came back later in the year, but the balance on the 31st March, 1915, had declined from about 231 to 149 millions of rupees. Since then there has been a gradual recovery, and the balance on the 31st March, 1918, was nearly 166 million rupees. The recovery would have been much quicker but for the large sale of five-year cash certificates in 1917-18 on behalf of the War Loan. The price received was about 100 million rupees, of which a considerable portion was withdrawn from Savings Bank deposits. At the same time the small depositors were busy purchasing cash certificates with money that would otherwise have been put into the Post Office Savings Bank. Now that the War is over and the rush for cash certificates has ceased, there is every prospect that the Post Office Savings Bank will shortly regain its former popularity. CHAPTER IX THE PEOPLE AND THE POST OFFICE