Low1 = 7
Responsibility for which appears to rest with Mr Lewis
No.
3 copies sent
Government House,
Hongkong, 12th February, 1902.
199
R.E.S.
17/3.
To proceed, adding to draft to Treasury that we have not yet received the Gazette but it is presumed that the 1 cent rate has been applied to letters from the Postal Agencies in China only to the U.K. & to those Colonies & possessions that have adopted penny postage. Mr Chamberlain presumes that their Lordships would not in any case approve the proposal in the enclosure to the present despatch, that the reduced rate be extended to the U.S.A. & send a copy of 20163 (confidentially to be read). We are to write to C.P.L. at once.
On it in brackets C.P.
8853
closure January,
0711
Gear 17 MAR 1900
With reference to my Despatch No.45 of the 29th ultimo, regarding the proposed establishment of a French Post Office at Amoy, I have the honour to transmit for your further information the enclosed copy of a letter from Mr. R. W. Mansfield, His Britannic Majesty's Consul at Amoy, in which he confirms the statements already made in the Postal Agent's letter of which I have furnished you with a copy.
2. With regard to the third paragraph of Mr. Mansfield's letter, I referred the suggestion therein contained to the Acting Postmaster-General, a copy of whose report I annex. At an interview with the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Lewis subsequently stated that there was no reason why the recommendations contained in his report should not be carried out at once, and a British sub-Post Office established at Amoy forthwith.
3. As the matter was one of considerable urgency, I accordingly took immediate steps to carry out the suggestion made by Mr. Mansfield, and I caused a Notification as to the reduced rates of postage to be published in the Government Gazette. The revised rates will come into force upon the 15th instant.
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, M.P.,
4.