Great Britain: Rebellion by the Rules

In the 301 years since Charles II organized the Post Office. Britain's blue uniformed postmen have made their appointed rounds despite highwaymen, Hitler's bombs, and a maze of pettifogging postal regulations that run into several thousand pages of fine type. Last week, by the trick of working strictly according to the rule book, British postal workers who want higher pay came close to strangling the Royal Mail in red tape.

Instead of double-or triple-parking mail trucks at railroad terminals, drivers waited obediently for curbside parking space—and missed the trains. Postmen were careful to take only the regulation 35-lb. load...