that the average balances maintained in accounts would be relatively 
small and that there would be a difficulty in making the svstem 
pay its way. 
5. Postal Cheques.—As Postal Cheques involve a preliminary 
reference to headquarters before transmission to the payee, they are 
in some ways at a disadvantage compared with the direct despatch of 
ordinary cheques. In order to compete effectively with such cheques 
they would probably have to cost less to the user and it is doubtful 
whether this would be practicable if anything in the nature of Stamp 
Duty were levied on the cheques. 
6. Stamp Duty om Postal Cheques.—We have given careful 
consideration to the question of exemption of Postal Cheques from 
Stamp Duty or an equivalent charge, and while it has been urged that 
such exemption is commonly given on Government cheques both 
in this country and elsewhere and that the Stamp Duty revenue 
would not suffer materially as the majority of Postal Cheques would 
probably represent additional business, we think that it would be 
invidious and undesirable to discriminate between Government and 
other banking in this respect. While expressing this view we do 
not think that it necessarily applies to a reduction in the case of 
cheques for very small amounts. We refer again to this in 
paragraph 12 below. 
7. Postal Transfers—The Postal Transfer which occupies a 
prominent position in Postal Cheque systems is an attractive feature 
where a sufficiently large number of customers hold Postal Cheque 
accounts. By this means payments can be made by a simple book- 
keeping transfer from one account to another, a notification that the 
transaction has been carried out being sent to the parties concerned. 
To popularise this means of payment, however, a large number of 
customers would be essential and in view of the development of 
other forms of banking in this country it seems doubtful whether a 
clientele on the Continental scale would be forthcoming. 
8. Cash Receipts from Third Parties. —As a machinery of receipt 
a system of Postal Cheque accounts operated by ‘the Post Office 
would offer facilities for payment by third parfies into a central 
account which would probably have attractions for large institutions 
such as friendly societies, trade unions, etc., who receive regular 
contributions of small amounts from a large number of members. 
We think, however, that there is no case for setting up a Postal 
Cheque system mainly to afford this convenience, and that if it were 
shown that a considerable demand existed for such facilities it 
would probably be feasible to institute suitable machinery otherwise 
for the purpose. 
9. Views of the Trade Union Congress—At the meeting of the 
Trade Union Congress in 1926 a resolution in favour of the Postal 
Cheque System was adopted. We therefore thought it advisable to 
invite the views of the General Council of the Trade Union Congress