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sooner; but there was some uncertainty as to extending the use of the new route to "Imperial penny" letters; and the Postmaster General has only recently obtained from the Treasury the requisite sanction for so doing.
The amount of printed matter, samples, etc. sent from this Country to the Far East is very considerable and that is why it is not proposed to authorise the despatch in the outward direction of articles of that nature by the new route until it is available on more moderate terms.
The importance of this point is manifest from the fact that, according to calculations made here, if the whole of the printed matter from this country for the Far East were diverted to the Siberian route the British Post Office would, as matters stand, incur an additional expenditure of no less than £31,000 a year.
The whole question will doubtless be fully discussed at the Postal Union Congress to be held at Rome next April.
In the meanwhile Mr. Lyttelton will doubtless wish to consider the course to be followed in the Colony of Hong Kong and at the Agencies which it maintains in parts of China; and for that purpose it may perhaps be useful to him to have the accompanying copy of a circular letter issued by the International Bureau of the Postal Union on the 5th of last month of which a copy was sent to the Postmaster General of Hong Kong on the 9th of October.
From the information given under sections II and III of that letter it will be seen that the Russian Post Office does not provide for the conveyance of Correspondence in closed mails beyond Shanghai; and the Hong Kong Post Office was requested by telegram to instruct its Agent at Shanghai to obtain from the local Russian Post Office the Correspondence for Hong Kong which has been sent hence day by day to Russia since the 1st of this month.
On and after the 3rd of next month such correspondence is to be despatched every evening (except Sunday) in a closed mail addressed to the Shanghai Agency of the Hong Kong Post Office and it is also intended to send a mail to the Agency at Chefoo.
The Postmaster General of Hong Kong will be asked by telegraph