Registered No.
412666.
Any reply should bear this number, and should be addressed :-
"The Secretary,
General Post Office."
Copy
81350 | 232
A
GENERAL POST OFFICE, LONDON.
11 November 1899.
98537
Sir,
With reference to your letter of the 5th ultimo,
No. 25024, and to my reply of the 18th, respecting the
unsatisfactory nature of the mail service afforded to Hong-
Kong by the French Packets of the Messageries Maritimes
Company, I am directed by the Postmaster General to acquaint
you, for the information of Mr. Secretary Chamberlain, that
the French Post Office, after communication with the Company,
finds itself unable to consent to the proposal for a postal
official to accompany the mails from Saigon for the purpose
of sorting correspondence, the practical difficulties being
regarded as insuperable.
The suggestion that the Packets, before proceeding to
their anchorage, should bring to off Green Island until the
mails shall have been transshipped to the Post Office launch
has also been considered. In the opinion of the Company,
however, it is unnecessary for the Packets to stop during
the process of transshipment, and it will suffice to bring
Under Secretary of State,
Colonial Office.