Apart from its architectural features the essentials in a post office building are very much those of a bank, namely, space, facility for supervision and an arrangement of the branches dealing with the public, so that anyone entering the office to do postal business can find his way immediately to the clerk concerned. Space is most necessary, especially in the sorting and delivery of mails. In crowded offices thefts occur, packets of mails get mixed up and shot into wrong bags, and proper supervision is almost impossible. The old Indian system of letting the public stand in the veranda of the post office and transact business through the windows of the buildings has always been fatal to good and quick work. In the first place it is not easy to find the proper window for the exact purpose one requires, and there are seldom sufficient for all the branches. In the second place, when one has discovered the right window, the clerk is seated inside some distance away, and it is often difficult to attract his attention. The only sensible arrangement is a hall with a proper counter and screen on which the departments are clearly indicated, and the clerks sitting right up face to face with the public. The postal clerk has the gift of complete aloofness when his services are in the greatest request, but it requires extra strong nerves to feign indifference to a man who is looking straight at you two feet away and shouting his demands in unintelligible Hindustani, especially if he hasn't yet breakfasted and the weather is very hot. The real value of the counter is, in fine, that it enables all work with the public to be performed in half the time. Except in the very largest offices where the postmaster sits in some secluded abode like an Olympian god, the postmaster's seat should be in the main office and readily accessible to the public. Deputy and assistant postmasters are very fine fellows, but nothing can compensate for the eagle eye of the Head. It is extraordinary how quickly a delivery gets out when he is present to urge it along, and how swiftly one gets one's money orders or savings bank deposits when he is looking on. For this reason he should be always within hail and, if he can accustom himself to deal courteously with the public and treat his staff with justice and consideration, he will be the man that the Post Office requires.