&C.
at Hongkong:
Joens 12431-08
(c). that "the Communities should contribute as
a matter of course towards any loss involved in the main-
-tenance of the special privileges provided for them
including their enjoyment of the Imperial Postage Rate".
As a matter of fact the communities which matter from a
financial point of view decline to do so.
8.
Your Lordship in your Despatch
of 13th. May, 1908, informed me that you wore consulting
the Foreign Office as regards the abolition of the penny
Lov 24506
rate and in the first enclosure to your Despatch under
7
reply (Sir C. Lucas to Treasury, 13th. August, 1909%) it
is stated that the Foreign Office consider this course
undesirable. The sub-enclosure (Foreign Office Letter) is
سیر
not however attached and I am consequently unaware of the
reason assigmed by the Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs in oposition to this proposal.
9.
Since the communities concerned
decline to contribute I have the honour to very strongly
press upon Your Lordship the immediate adoption of this
solution. I have heard that it would not be considered
unreasonable by the British community of Shanghai, and in
this connection I attach an extract from an article which
appeared
270