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Hong Kong upon letters forwarded in the mails for France, Ao the French post office accounts to this department for such postage.
With respect to the British post office agencies at the Consular Costs in China and at Nagasaki (Japan) I have to observe that it appears to me that the very management of these agencies should be conducted by Hong Kong post office, and that direct accounts should not be opened between those agencies and this department. At the same time, I think that it would be unfair to throw upon the Colony the cost of maintaining these agencies, in the event of the expenses exceeding the amount of colonial revenue derived from the correspondence.
The course which I am inclined to recommend is to leave the Colonial post office to regulate and to pay all the expenses of agencies, and in aid of those expenses, first, to allow that post office the same share of the postage on letters between the United Kingdom and the parts in question, and the same Colonial rate upon all letters which do not pass through the United Kingdom that are to...