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Office showed a steady increase during the period under re- view and the increase was reflected in the sales of stamps which in December, 1946, reached the total of $604,934.80, the highest ever recorded.
Telecommunications.
Telecommunications plant and equipment had suffered extensive damage. Practically all pre-war equipment was either destroyed, removed or unusable. Radio transmitters had been brought into the Colony by the Japanese for point to point and broadcasting work and although they were installed in cramped underground cellars and appeared to have been poorly maintained, it was possible to renovate them sufficiently to carry on broadcasting and point to point services for the Administration until new equipment could be procured and installed. Radio Station buildings had been extensively dam- aged and in the absence of any suitable alternative provision they had to be repaired piecemeal without interruption to the heavy traffic being carried. A long distance short-wave radio service to ships was re-established early in 1946 with the co- operation of the Royal Navy, and the improvised equipment brought into use at the same time for a medium wave service was replaced some months later with standard equipment. A radio service was also improvised for reporting inward ship- ping. Aeronautical radio services presented some difficulties but with the assistance of the Royal Air Force a start was made and several channels brought into operation. A large volume of meteorological messages was handled through many radio channels. The requirements of the Police Force includ- ing the Water Police had to be met as far as possible with improvised equipment and comparatively little headway was possible in this field.
On their release from internment members of the staff of Cable and Wireless, Ltd., took over the Japanese commercial wireless services which were operated from two bombproof basement stations, one on Hong Kong Island and one in Kow- loon. Contact with the outside world was quickly established, point to point services being opened during the month of September with Macao, Colombo, Chungking, Manila, Canton and Shanghai. Traffic for the United Kingdom was passed via Colombo. All the company's pre-war wireless telegraphy equipment had been either removed or destroyed by the Japanese and the process of bringing in new up to date equip- ment continued throughout the period under review.
By the end of 1946, the transmitting and receiving stations were fully equipped for radio telegraphy and some progress had been made with the procurement of gear for resumption of radio telephone channels. Rehabilitation of the cable service had to await the arrival of cable ships working eastwards from Colombo. From the outset it was known that the Japanese had made considerable changes in the disposition of cables in