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Text File  |  1992-09-01  |  710b  |  18 lines
  1. Government department or authority with
  2. responsibility for postal services and
  3. telecommunications. In the UK, the first
  4. Master of the Post was appointed 1516 with a
  5. limited brief, and in 1635, there was a royal
  6. proclamation `for the settling of the letter
  7. office in England and Scotland', establishing
  8. the first public service. The service
  9. developed and expanded rapidly, with
  10. financial services being provided by the 18th
  11. century. It has responsibility for paying out
  12. social security and collecting revenue for
  13. state insurance schemes. Post Office
  14. activities were divided 1981 to separate
  15. telecommunications activities, and in 1984,
  16. these were privatized, and a new company,
  17. British Telecom, was established.
  18.