HONGKONG POSTAL GUIDE
415
146.As all the routes available for ordinary letters are not availabie for insured letters, the latter may be longer in transit than the former.
147. The following regulations are enforced with regard to the insurance of letters:-
(a) The maximum amount for which a letter packet may be insured is $1,200
or Francs 3,000.
(b) The rates of insurance are:-
Francs
£
$
$ cts.
Francs
£
$5
300 or 12 or
120
fee
25
1,800 or 72 or
720 fee $1.50
6:0 900 1,200 1,500
24
240
50
99.
""
,,
2,100
84
840
1.75
""
""
""
36
360
75
""
""
""
2,400
96
960
2.00,
,,
""
"}
48
""
""
60
480 600
1.00
""
1.25
""
2,700 3,000 120
108
199
""
1,080
2.25
""
""
""
1,200
2.50
""
(c) The fee for insurance is in addition to postage and fee for registration. (d) Insurance to an amount greater than the real value of the contents of a
letter is prohibited.
(e) The infringement of the above rule with intent to defraud deprives the
sender of any right to compensation.
(f) It is forbidden to enclose in insured letter:-(1) Coin; (2) Articles subject to Customs duty, except paper money; (3) Articles of gold or silver, precious stones, jewellery, and other articles of a similar nature.
(9) The sender of a letter containing insured articles receives gratis at the time
of posting a summary receipt for his letter.
(b) The sender of a letter containing insured articles can have sent to him an acknowledgment of the delivery of the packet to the addressee, or can, subsequent to posting of a packet, ask for information as to its disposal, under the same conditions as for registered articles (see paragraph 127).
(i) An application for an indemnity for loss of an insured letter is only enter-
tained if made within a year of the posting of the insured letter. (j) Letters containing insured articles can only be accepted if enclosed in a strong envelope fastened by means of seals in fine wax, with spaces be- tween, reproducing a private mark, and affixed in sufficient number to hold down all the folds of the envelope. The employment of envelopes with coloured borders is forbidden.
(k) The eondition of every letter must be such that its contents cannot be got.
at without external and visible damage to the envelope or the seals. (7) Space must be left between the postage stamps used for the prepayinent, sơ that they cannot serve to hide injuries to the envelope. They must not be folded over the two sides of the envelope so as to cover the edge. (m) Letters containing insured articles addressed to initials or directed in
pencil are not accepted.
(n) The amount of the value insured must be expressed in francs and centimes, and must be written by the sender on the cover of the packet in words and in figures, without erasure or correction, even if certified. (0) The sender's name and address must be endorsed on the left-hand lower
corner on the face of the cover.
(p) Except in cases beyond control (ie., fire, tempest, earthquake, war, shipwreck, etc.), when an insured letter has been lost or damaged or its contents abstracted, the sender, or at his request the addressee, is entitled to an indeninity corresponding with the actual amount of the loss, damage or abstraction unless the damage has been eaused by the fault or negligence of the sender or arises from the nature of the article, and provided that this indemnity may not exceed in any case the sun for which the letter has been insured.
(q) In case of loss the sender is also entitled to return of the expenses of
transmission.
(7) The seals on an ordinary envelope should be placed as shown below :-- (8) All the seals on an insured letter must be of the same kind of wax and must bear distinct impressions of the same private device. Coins must not be used for sealing; and the device must not consist merely of straight, crossed, or curved lines whieh could readily be imitated.