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your opinion possible to "' dispense with sorting mails " on board mail packets between "Penang and Hong Kong if " reduction in subsidy could be " obtained. Repeat telegram to "Governor Hong Kong;
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to which I replied by telegraph on the instant as follows:-
" In reply to your telegram " confidential 5th January
my opinion cannot " dispense with sorting between • Singapore & Hong Kong.
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2.
To dispense with the sorting of the English mails on board ship would result in a delay of about three hours in their delivery in Hongkong, which would cause very great inconvenience to the merchants of this Colony.
3. I understand from Messrs. Chater and Bell Irving, the unofficial Members of the Executive Council, that most of the China and Japan firms have their head office in this Colony; that the greater part of the business letters
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for