C.O.
CHINA ASSOCIATION,
36388
24971
159, Cannon Street,
5th October, 1908.
6 00
655
Sir,
With reference to your letter of the 3rd September, (No. 31458/1908) informing my Committee that arrangements have been made to keep the British Postal Agency at Tientsin open for another year pending further consideration of the question of the cost of its maintenance, I am directed to inform you that my Committee have received despatches from the Tientsin Branch of the Association which indicate that the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury and the British Municipal Councils have agreed to share the estimated loss on the British Postal Agency at the Port for the year ending the 10th October, 1909.
I am to add that the British Community at Tientsin entered into this arrangement only upon the Assurance of H.E. the Governor of Hongkong (contained in his telegram to H.B.M. acting Consul General at Tientsin, dated 22nd August, 1908) that the offer of the Lords Commissioners was expressly made in order to permit of the temporary retention of the Agency pending further consideration, without prejudice in either direction."
While my Committee are gratified to learn that the arrangement will have the effect of preventing the loss from falling on Hongkong, which could not in fairness be expected to bear the loss incurred in giving postal advantages to a community in whose welfare she is only indirectly interested, they see no reason to depart from the view, expressed in the Memorandum enclosed with the Association's letter of the 27th September, 1907 to your Department, that it is consistent neither with fairness
H.M. Under Secretary of State
for the Colonies
Colonial Office
Downing Street, S.W.