CO129-315 - Public Offices & Others - 1902 — Page 147

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3.

The immediate loss of revenue which that measure would entail

is estimated at £450,000 a year, which includes £27,000 in respect

of Colonies not yet comprised in the Penny Postage scheme; and of

course the Postmaster General could not contemplate such a

sacrifice of revenue without consulting the Chancellor of the

Exchequer and other members of His Majesty's Government.

Apart, however, from financial considerations, I am to point

out that there is a wide difference of principle between Penny

Postage within the Empire and Universal Penny Postage. The

establishment of. Penny Postage with the Colonies was a step in

the direction of promoting closer business and political relations

within the British Empire. It may be that the actual money

advantage to the inhabitants of either the Colonies or the United

Kingdon resulting from the cheapening of letter postage is not

verv great; but the Secretary of State will probably share the

Postmaster General's view that the cheapening of postage, so long

as it is confined within the British Empire, has, as a matter of

sentiment, a distinct political value, which was worth any

sacrifice of revenue which it involved. But to extend Penny

Postage beyond the British Empire would, in the Postmaster

General's opinion, deprive it of its existing value in this

respect, and would reduce it to a simple matter of business

convenience.

The Postmaster General, then, deprecates the extension

of the present scheme into an international Penny Post, not

only because of the large loss of revenue, but because such

an extension would destroy the effect of the existing scheme

as a link of Empire. At the same time, he recognizes that in

certain circumstances if, for instance, it were generally

pressed upon His Majesty's Government by Foreign

Administrations

he might be forced to adopt the larger

scheme; but he sees no sufficient reason for beginning with

China now.

As regards the proposed exchange of correspondence with

the Chinese Post Office, I am to say that this is a matter

which primarily affects the Post Office of Hong Kong. At

present, as the Secretary of State is aware, under a

Convention between the French and the Imperial Chinese Post

Offices, the French Postal agencies in China act as

General's

intermediate