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GEOD 21 201 10
GENERAL POST OFFICE, LONDON,
29th September 1910.
Sir,
I am directed by the Postmaster General to inform you that he has given further consideration to the main- tenance of Postal Agencies in China dealt with in your letter of the 27th ultimo, No.15655/10, and in Treasury References 16228 and 16473, to this Office of the 7th instant covering Letters from the Foreign Office and from the Colonial Office. The Postmaster General is still of
the opinion expressed in his letter of the 2nd of April last, that no purpose of efficiency or economy will be served by the proposed transfer of the Agencies from the control of Hong Kong. The difficulty of control already experienced in the case of the Agencies in Morocco and the Levant will be accentuated in a service conducted in a Country so remote as China, and, as regards economy, the figures at present obtained shew that something approaching two-thirds of the total expenditure on the Agencies is for the transit of Mails for which substantially the whole of the charges is fixed by Postal Union Statistics and cannot be reduced. If the Agencies are taken over, the course clearly indicated is that, subject to such assistance as may be obtainable from officers of the Consular Service, they should be administered directly by a Head Postal Official at Shanghai, who, in addition to the duties already
performed
The Secretary,
Treasury.