C
Address reply to "The Secretary, General Post Office,"
quoting Registered No...
60 G..
Ripres
Reco
C.C.
23405
GENERAL POST OFFICE, HONGKONG
507
28 June 1906.
Sir,
Referring to your letters of the 4th of last month and 16th instant, No. 15524, I am directed by the Postmaster General to acquaint you, for the information of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, that after the Colonial Office and other Government Departments concerned in the Western Mail Service had been consulted the tender forms were approved by the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury and issued to firms applying for them. In these circumstances the Earl of Elgin will understand that it is too late to modify the forms relating to the China Service by inserting a provision for sea sorting between Hong Kong and Shanghai.
In the despatch from the Governor of Hong Kong of which you furnished a copy it is stated that the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company do, as a matter of fact, allow sorters to proceed beyond Hong Kong to Shanghai; and it may be possible to have this arrangement formally recognized in any fresh contract, should it be decided to maintain the Secretary of State,
COLONIAL OFFICE, HONG KONG
extension