CO129-315 - Public Offices & Others - 1902 — Page 158

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"Address reply to-"The Secretary, 'General Post Office,"

quoting Registered No. 590,224.

Copy

C.O.

27

157

TGENERAL POST OFFICE, LONDON

3 December 1902.

Sir,

A4

0

I am directed by the Postmaster General to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 11th instant, No.50443, forwarding, by direction of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, a copy of a despatch from the Governor of Hong Kong, who advocates the establishment of a direct Parcel Post between that Colony and the United States.

The Postmaster General sees no objection in principle to a parcel post service between a British Colony and the United States. Such a service already exists, as Sir H. Blake points

out, between the United States and the Windward Islands; and

there are other arrangements of the kind between the States and British Colonies, e.g. the Leeward Islands and Newfound-

land.

If the scheme meets with the Secretary of State's

approval, there are two courses of procedure open. A Parcel

Post Convention between Hong Kong and the United States might

be negotiated diplomatically, through the intervention of

the Foreign Office, and a direct exchange of parcels with the

United States Post Office secured, like the exchanges already

carried on between that Office and the British Colonies

referred to above. Or a private arrangement might be arrived

at between the Hong Kong Post Office and some Express Company in the United States, like that recently concluded between this Department and the American Express Company.

If the Government of Hong Kong should be successful in carrying out the first alternative, and obtain the consent of Under Secretary of State,

the

COLONIAL

OFFICE.

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