BAG
ceale
Sir:-
REG 14 DEC 091
Pettaig DEC.
November 18, 1909.
294
F
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your
despaton No. 284 of September 28th last (35573/09) forward-
ing copies of correspondence received from the Colonial Office
on the subject of British Postal Agencies in China, and re-
questing me to furnish you with any observations which I may
have to offer upon these papers.
I gather from the enclosures in your despatch under reply
and from previous correspondence on the same subject that the
maintenance of the British Postal Agencies has in recent years
involved the Goverment of Hongkong in a financial 1088 owing
chiefly to the adoption of the penny postage rate and to the
transmission of mails to Europe via the Siberian route: that
as a provisional measure the Treasury have agreed to guarantee
half the loss for one year and that the Governor of Hongkong
has suggested that the remaining moiety of the loss should be
mot
Right Honourable SIR EDWARD GREY, Bart.,
&0.
&•