Excellency the Governor; I beg that you will point out to him that instead of adopting the suggestions made by Mr. Barnes, the United States Mail Agent, the Royal Office shall be at liberty to collect its own postage upon correspondence dispatched. The Postmaster of Washington prefers to fix the rates of postage to be levied by each dispatching Office. He has fixed ten cents as the rates to be collected for the United States for each half-ounce letter, and two cents for each Newspaper or Price Current dispatched from the United States to China, leaving the Colonial Governments to fix the rate to be collected upon correspondence sent in the opposite direction, and in so doing he has suggested a reduction in the ordinary postage on letters posted here, which is eight cents per half-ounce.
With reference to this suggestion, I would beg to point out that I cannot advise any reduction in the rates of eight cents per half-ounce letter, because, in the first place, eight cents is the uniform sea rate of charge on all letters sent from Hong Kong to places in China, Japan, and India, and it would be inconvenient to establish varying rates; and secondly, because this Office has to pay four cents on each letter sent to or brought from its dependent Ports. Under these circumstances, I would recommend His Excellency the Governor to fix the rate upon all letters sent hence to the United States by the Pacific Mail Packets at eight cents per half-ounce, and two cents for each Newspaper or Price Current.
It is, of course, understood that the amount paid on dispatch will cover the whole postage to destination, and that no charge will be made by either Office on delivery of the correspondence.
The Postmaster General at Washington proposes...
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