2
has recently fallen vacant:
[In regard to the
last pact of the
from the Daily Press
the Post mew
laziness 8
it seems
Registered No. 71492.
en close ce Extract
Any reply should bear this number, and should be addressed :--
most unlikely that
from
"The Secretary,
General Post Office."
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in text = "7
11/3
in questide delayed letters not from 'furacions intent
TCM.
I think it would be enough to till 9.0.0 that
S
the I of S has already called upon the Goor for
a
report
Br
the
alleged irregularities in the G.P.O. at Hongkong & that when
that report is reed
От
further communication will be addressed to there in
reply to this letter
G.W. J 1/3
a sand copy correspondanse
to gudanar
C.PL-13
at once
sir,
0.0.
163
6579
Rece
&
Each 9 MAR 9
GENERAL POST OFFICE LONDON.
8 March 1899.
I am directed by the Postmaster General to forward to you herewith, for any action which the Secretary of State for the Colonies may think necessary, a copy of a letter addressed from the "Daily Press" office at Hong Kong to the Librarian of the Royal Colonial Institute, London, and sent on to this Department through Mr. Henniker Heaton M.P.
the
The letter contains allegations of a grave nature against the Hong Kong Post Office; and if, as stated, the matter has already been brought to the notice of the Colonial Office, Postmaster General will be glad to know the result of the investigations made on the subject.
With regard to the alleged systematic abstraction of correspondence in the Hong Kong Post Office, I am to state that, so far as the experience of this Department goes, there has been no noticeable increase recently in the number of complaints about letters addressed to or originating in Hong Kong. There were 21 complaints of the kind in the last 3 months of 1897 and 22 for the same period in 1898. In three of these later instances the letters reported as missing have been found, and in two others there has not yet been time enough for the receipt of replies to the enquiries addressed to the Hong Kong Post
Office.
One of the applicants enclosed an extract from an article in the "Daily Press", of which a copy is enclosed, and two commercial firms expressed their belief that there was some laxity in the Hong Kong Postal service and that irregularities were occurring there.
Under Secretary of State,
COLONIAL OFFICE.
I