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the wording of the resolution be left and brought up for consideration at some other time?
On the following morning an amendment. in the wording which appears at the head of this report, was proposed, seconded and carried unanimously.
THE MAIL SERVICE.
The Suez and the Pacific Routes,
It was unanimously agreed:
That. whilst gladly recognising that there has recently been some improvement in the mail service between China and the United Kingdom, the conference desires to call attention to the fact that it is still subject to frequent delay and is deplorably irregular, and urges the responsible authorities to make every effort to put the service on a satisfactory basis.'
In moving this resolution on behalf of Shanghai, Mr. Massey (Reiss and Co.) said:
I have taken some pains to ascertain whether there is any radical change that could be effected which would bring about the desired expedition of our mail service via Suez, but unfortunately, after studying the schedule and conferring with the agents of the different steamship lines concerned, I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that the Government is doing almost all that lies in its power to do, and that until the conditions of travel are so improved as to bring us back towards what we were accustomed to in pre-war days very little can be achieved in the desired direction.
It is true that nowadays 90 per cent. of business is conducted over the wires, but notwithstanding this a prompt and regular mail service is a very necessary complement thereto. Those of us who are engaged in the import trade know what great inconvenience has been caused both to importers, steamship agents, banks and the customs service through the erratic way in which our advices of shipments and documents come forward. Sometimes we have had two or even three steamers of one line in harbour, without a single document relating thereto having been received. We occasionally see an instance of a fast freighter making the voyage out to China in what we would have considered excellent mail time in pre-war days, and at one period the Government were criticised for not making regular use of these opportunities, but unfortunately a service like this is not to be relied upon for con- tinuity. Further. in the nature of their trade these big freight steamers cannot guarantee to maintain a settled itinerary and the economic speed of the different vessels of the same fleet varies very considerably, thus making such a service, if it was availed of for mails, irregular in the extreme.
"Without wishing to minimise the difficulties with which the London officials of the Post Office are concerned, it is, however, thought that if these officials kept in closer touch with the various steamship lines trading with the East, they could inform themselves more accurately as to when the various vessels might be expected to reach Hong Kong and/or Shanghai, with considerable advantage to the mails. I hope that representations of this fact may be made to the responsible authorities at home and that they will see fit to act upon it.
"At present the mails are coming out mostly via Bombay, whence they proceed overland to Negapatam, and from there a regular service is maintained to the Straits. The next stage is that they are sent forward as opportunity offers to Hong Kong and further up the coast, but there have been instances where good judgment has not been exercised as to the on-carrying vessel. The Hong Kong Chamber has kept a keen watch on this point, and it may be hoped and expected that the representations made by it through the Hong Kong Government will lead to the non-recurrence of such instances. It is at the instance of the Hong Kong Chamber that mails are now forwarded from Penang to Singapore by rail, which means the saving of at least twenty-four hours, and might mean the saving of several days by being able to take advantage of the earliest fast sailing from Singapore to Hong Kong. The weak link in this chain is that the mails do not always arrive in Bombay in fourteen days, as scheduled, thus dislocating all the connection. We may hope that with an improve- ment in the P. & O. service such incidents may be eliminated.
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What I have said up to now refers particularly to the Suez route, and this route must ever remain the principal one for our friends in the South of China. But for those of us in the Yangtze district and the more northern ports, the Pacific route affords an excellent opportunity for communicating quickly with the Homeland. It is not difficult to imagine, therefore, with what consternation we learnt last July that a dispute had arisen between the Canadian Government and the Canadian Pacific steamers with regard to the subsidy for carrying mails, with the result that a large consignment of mails, which were already on board one of the big Empresses at Vancouver, was unloaded at the last moment and had to come along by slower vessels, entailing a delay of at least two weeks.
"It was naturally thought at the time that a way would soon be found out of the impasse that had arisen. but here we are four months later and, as far as one can find out, there is no immediate prospect of this particular service being resumed. I think you will all agree with me in urging on His Majesty's Government the great value there is to this not unimportant British community in the Far East that arrangements should speedily be concluded for the resumption of the carriage of mails from England by the Empress boats. By this route we can at least expect one or more fast mails per month, and though this is by no means the ideal for which we are striving, it is at any rate a very desirable step to achieve.
"It is understood here that the dispute arose upon refusal of the Canadian Government to pay the increased subsidy required by the Canadian Pacific Ocean Services. I have been privileged to see a letter dated the 30th August, written by the Department of Trade and Commerce to Dr. Ross, the Canadian Trade Commis- sioner here, on this subject and it would appear therefrom that the Post Office Department claim that they could get done for 10,000 dollars what the Canadian Pacific Railway ask 400.000 dollars for. The Canadian Pacific Railway then offered to take whatever the regular postal rates were, but the Post Office Department stated that under the International Postal Union, if they put any mails on the Canadian Pacific Railway at all, they would be obliged to carry all other foreign mails for all countries within the Postal Union. The letter concludes with the statement that the matter is now engaging the attention of the Government.
As such a small part of the mail which should be taken by these steamers emanates from Canada itself, the bulk being mail in transit for the United Kingdom, it is perhaps a not unreasonable attitude for the Canadian Government to take up. But we would urge on the Imperial Government seriously to consider whether it is not in a position to take on its own shoulders the extra subsidy required, in recog- Should nition of the big service it would thus do to British commercial interests. it be necessary and feasible I am quite sure that merchants would be only too glad to pay an extra fee for letters routed viâ Vancouver, when the connections are suitable."
In seconding the resolution on behalf of Chefoo, Mr. Railton said :— "Mr. Massey has left very little for me to say in seconding this resolution unless it may be to bring forward a couple of instances to prove that very serious blunders or mistakes have been made by the authorities somewhere between London and Chefoo. In the first instance copies of five different letters reached us earlier than the originals whereas the originals were posted a week before the copies. A friend of mine left London on the 11th April on the 'Delta, and seeing advices that there was a mail for China on the 3rd April he posted a letter to his people in North China on the 1st April. He came straight through and landed in Chefoo after spending a fortnight in Shanghai. And he waited two weeks before the mail which he posted on the 1st April reached its destination.''
An
Mr. L. E. N. Ryan (Canadian Pacific Ocean Services (Limited), said:— "There is one point which Mr. Massey mentioned in his speech and that is that the Canadian Pacific Ocean Services had asked for an increased subsidy. increased subsidy was asked for but it was finally decided to ask the Canadian Government to renew the subsidy at the same figure which it was fixed at five years ago. When that was fixed the Siberian route was open and most mail matter went that way. During the war we got a great deal of mail which used to go through Siberia and the subsidy was not a profitable one during that time. I think you can hardly blame the Canadian Pacific Ocean Services for asking for the subsidy to be at the same rate as before the war despite the fact that a great deal of mail is still coming out that way."
493