GENERAL POST OFFICE, LONDON.
22 March 1899.
Sir,
I am directed by the Postmaster General to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 24th ultimo, No. 3628, enclosing a copy of a despatch from the Governor of Hong Kong, relating to the estimated loss to the revenue of that Colony through the adoption of the penny postage scheme.
In reply I am to state, for the information of Mr. Secretary Chamberlain, that the reduction of collections on letters from Hong Kong for the United Kingdom at the rate of 1d. per ounce, as estimated by this Department was £2,100, i.e. $21,000; and that this estimate was arrived at without any consideration of the letters from other parts of China (a reduction in the postage on which it was no part of the scheme to introduce), or of the letters from Hong Kong itself for any part of the Empire other than the Mother Country.
It is understood that the exclusion from the penny postage scheme of other British Postal Agencies in China...
Under Secretary of State
COLONIAL OFFICE.
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