Note 40 — Chapter IV

We trust there is no doubt whatever upon this point, yet two cases have recently occurred which cannot fail to awaken much apprehension in the minds of depositors. In each it appears that a fraudulent person got hold of a depositor’s book and withdrew the sum to his credit. The Post Office denied its responsibility on the ground that it had already discharged its obligation. Machinery to prevent the repetition of such a fraud could, we apprehend, be easily instituted, which would protect the Office, and at the same time not interpose unnecessary delay or impediment to the withdrawal of deposits. For some few years after the establishment of money orders some frauds were successfully practised upon the Post Office, but there do not appear to have been of late even attempts at fraud, yet the money order system is much more simple now, as regards the public, than it formerly was.