Postal Agencies at the Ports of China.
under its control.
Turning now to the questions raised in the correspondence between Downing Street and St. Martins le Grand, the following remarks may be pertinent.
(a). The statement in the G. P. O. of January 1890 that the Government of Hongkong instead of applying the full Imperial subsidy towards the support of the Agencies, makes a profit of over ... dollars a year under the arrangement is refuted by the figures in paragraph 4 supra.
(b) Again, in the same letter it is written that "an examination of the question, however, shows that no addition to the Imperial subsidy is needed to place the Government of Hongkong in a position to fix the salaries of the respective agents at the rates proposed".
It was shown in paragraph 1 that the original subsidy in 1869 nearly equalled the amount of salaries paid to Postal Agents including half the salary of the Shanghai Agent. From this it is a fair inference that it was the original intention of the Imperial Government to pay the salaries of these Agents; moreover, it is not to be supposed that this grant made out of the Imperial Treasury was solely to benefit the Colonial Government, had there been no advantage accruing to the United Kingdom from the course then adopted, the subsidy would not have been paid. If then it is reasonable to assume that the Imperial Government in 1869 benefited by the policy pursued, it is also reasonable that the large expansion...