625 : ce the steamer offices, and hence the expenses would doubtless exceed the receipts. These places are out of the jurisdiction of Imperial or Colonial Law, so far as regards the Post Office; you cannot oblige people to send letters by the regular post and hence they would use it if established, only when it happened to suit their convenience, for instance for the purchase of postage stamps, as above stated, and they would not be fettered with rules and regulations laid down by the Post Office, or by the hours set apart for public business. The proximity of the steamer office releases them from all these restrictions and they would continue to forward their letters out of the mail unless in any particular instance, they desired to avail themselves of the security of the Post Office. For these and other reasons we have come to the conclusion that no additional Post offices are necessary.
And hence we were the more willing to make the agreement referred to in paragraph 18, for handing over to the local Post office at Shanghai the exclusive conveyance of letters for certain ports, where they have facilities, owing to their connection with the merchants which the British Post Office could not obtain.
V