40. Parcel post facilities were introduced at the Shau Kei Wan, Ma Tau Wai and Sheung Wan Post Offices with the latter office accept- ing parcels of all categories, including insured and C.O.D. (air and surface) items.
41. During the year the first direct surface parcel despatches were made up on the respective offices of exchange of Brussels Entrepôt, Copenhagen, Iraq, Chiasso 2, Nauru, Kuwait, Bahrain and Djakarta.
42. Direct air parcel despatches were also made up on Rangoon, Brussels Entrepôt, Frankfurt, Dacca, Tel Aviv, Indonesia, Prague and Brazil.
REGISTRATION AND INSURANCE
43. Records in this sphere were broken in no uncertain manner with a tremendous increase of 288,378 registered items. The steady annual rise in this traffic is reflected in the following comparative figures for the past six years; it will be seen that for the first time the total of 3,000,000 was exceeded.
Number of Items
Year
1952/53
1953/54
1954/55
1955/56
1956/57
1957/58
2,162,206
2,174,004
2,241,799
2,392,650
2,941,485
3,229,863
44. The lack of accommodation still made it necessary to suspend the registration and insurance services to the China Mainland and the insurance service to the United States of America,
FORCES MAIL
45. Mail for Navy, Army and Air Force Units continued to be dealt with by the Fleet Mail Office and British Army Post Office in close liaison with this Department. Mail arrangements for visiting foreign warships continued to be made in liaison with the respective national postal administrations.
CHRISTMAS POSTINGS
46. In view of the increase of seasonal Christmas traffic, 60 temporary mail coolies were employed for a period of two weeks to help with the heavy collections and transfer of bags.
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