I am to request that you will be good enough to draw Lord Knutsford's attention to the Report of the Commissioner who in that year enquired into the Postal Agencies in China, given in paragraph 19 of their Report for not recommending additional Agencies, and to the reasons.
In Mr. Raitt's opinion those reasons are conclusive and apply as much to present circumstances as to those then existing.
In stating that the Colony pays in Salaries and Allowances a total of $940, Lord Knutsford does not appear to have taken into account the circumstance that, in return for its share of expenses, the Colonial Post Office retains the whole of the postage collected on local letters transmitted between Hong Kong and Consular ports, as well as the fees upon all registered letters posted at the ports, whether local or international, which, the Postmaster General presumes, must produce a considerable amount of revenue.
With regard to the statistics given in the enclosure to the Acting Governor's despatch of the 10th of September 1889, I have to remark that they mainly seem to apply to the numbers of registered letters sent and received.