* Address reply to--"The Secretary, General Post Office,"
quoting Registered No. 420915
ই
2+
GENERAL POST OFFICE, LONDON.
1 Ma
1911.
Co 0845
242
Sir,
2 MAR
I am directed to acquaint you, for the information of the Secretary of State, that the Postmaster Gereral has under consideration the question of providing distinctive postage stomps for the use of the British Post 02?tor Arencies in China.
Concurrently with such provision he would propose to notify that ordinary stamps of Hong Kong would,after a specified time be invalid for the prepayment of postage at these Agencies, since, as the expense of the maintenance of the Agencies now falls on the Imperial Post Office, it is of course not desirable to continue indefinitely the present practice of meeting the requirements of the British Agency Service by means of the ordinary issue of Hong Kong postage stamps.
In the case of the services of the British Post Office which are maintained in Morocco and the Levant, United King- dom stamps are overprinted for the use of the Agency Services; but this plan could not be followed in the case of the China Agencies, as the United Kingdom issue does not include equivalents for some of the rates of postage in force in China. It will consequently be necessary either to issue special stamps or to overprint Hong Kong stamps for the
purpose; and, in the circumstances, the Postmaster General Under Secretary of State,
COLONIAL OFFICE.
would