OFFICE OF
WORKS
94 2005
$420
155
Staff members, and they feel now that they are no longer pessimistic about this appointment.
The Staff here is keenly alive to the French & German rivalry and is doing its utmost to retrieve the reputation of the British Post Office and I think I can safely say that a vast improvement has been effected. I understand from the Chief Clerk that complaints in the papers were of constant occurrence, but nothing has appeared in the Press since 1st April. I hear also that the Germans are much put out and chagrined on being thwarted in their attempt to capture the monopoly of the postal business in Shanghai.
It would, therefore, be a disgrace if we allow the ground to pass out of our hands, and more so in the event of a Foreign Government building a new and up to date Post Office alongside, thus dwarfing our old and cramped building. The humiliation would indeed be bitter and would arouse the indignation of the British section of the Shanghai Community.
I trust, therefore, you will urge on the Government to obtain this land from the Chinese Government and if necessary through the Secretary of State, as expansion is needed at no distant date.
If the ground could be allowed to lie fallow for so long, surely the Imperial Government in the interest of its own national prestige, could lease it to the Hongkong Government on the same terms as the ground on which the present building stands.
I have etc.,
(sgd.) E. B. Dixon,
Ag. Postmaster.