6.
99
France and Germany respectively
that their Aministrations
would look upon such a proposal with disapproval and that they have no intention either of increasing the postage or of
closing their Agencios.
6.
If the long due to the agencies cannot be avoided and if no part of it can be shifted on to the British coramities of the Treaty Ports, it apparently follows that the Colony of Tong Kong itself must be left to pay half the deficit unless the Imperial Government undertakes to pay more than half.
The Postanater doneral in the letter addressed to tho Treasury on the 24th of August last has already suggested that, if it should prove impracticable to levy contributions from the British commmities, my burdon which it is thought might reasonably have been laid upon them should properly be home by the Imperial Government rather than by Bong Kong.
As a result of his further investigation he has found some reason for modifying his views as to the interest of the Colony in this service as to the past and at present.
Preslin
6.
Careful exvination has been malo of the records of this Office dating from the year 1978, when the control of the Imperial Agencies in China and Japan was transferred to Hong Kong, on the question of profits in the part, but no precise conclusion can be reached as to the periods during which the conluet of the Agencies increased the net revenue of
Thtil Tong "ong or no to the mount of the profits made. comparatively recent years no separate accounts appear to have. been kept and before 1891 no direct statement appears to howe boon made. The statements furnished then and in certain
aubsequent