309
Agency could be carried on successfully or not.
But I am very sure that the attempt would be equivalent to reducing my staff, to all intents and purposes by one—a result which neither I, nor anyone in my place, am prepared to face.
The proposal of the Hongkong Government is, it appears to me, based on a mistaken belief that the volume of Consular work at Tientsin differs so little from that at most other Treaty Ports, that postal arrangements which have been made at the latter places would also be feasible and adequate here.
Tientsin however ranks now, in respect of the volume of business done both in the Fort and in the Consulate, second in the list of Treaty Ports, and the somewhat amateurish provisions which suffice for say Amoy or Chefoo, will hardly satisfy public demands in modern Tientsin. It is true the staff of this Consulate has been increased by one, since in 1902, I wrote the letter which appears as Enclosure 3 in Sir M. Nathan's Despatch of the 21st February last.
But the current work is also increasing steadily, as is partly shown by the following table giving the totals of letters received and sent in the years 1902 and 1905 respectively.
1902 1905 Received 694 873 Sent 545 699These figures do not include the Chinese correspondence.
It is pertinent to the question asked by the Hongkong Government to state how the four Powers who have established Post Offices at this Port, France, Germany, Japan and Russia have dealt with the matter. I have ascertained the facts from information kindly supplied to me by my consular colleagues concerned.
All the four Post Offices are installed in separate premises from the Consulates, and only one—the Japanese—is even in the same compound.
French (exclusive of a military post office): one French postmaster, 1 French 1st class clerk, 1 Chinese interpreter, 2 Chinese facteurs.
German: Three Europeans, 2 Chinese shroffs, 1 Chinese clerk, 5 Chinese messengers, 1 Chinese coolie,
309
Agency could be carried on successfully or not.
But I am very sure that the attempt would be equiva-
lent to reducing my staff, to all intents and pur-
poses by one a result which neither I, nor anyone
in my place, am prepared to face.
The proposal of the Hongkong Government is, it
appears, to me based on a mistaken belief that the
volume of Consular work at Tientsin differs so lit-
tle from that "at most other Treaty Ports", that
postal arrangements which have been made at the lat-
ter places would also be feasible and adequate here.
Tientsin however ranks now in respect of the volume
of business done both in the Fort and in the Consu-
late, second in the list of Treaty Ports, and the
somewhat amateurish provisions which suffice for say
Amoy or Chefoo, will hardly satisfy public demands
in modern Tientsin. It is true the staff of this
Consulate has been increased by one, since in 1902,
I wrote the letter which appears as Enclosure 3 in
Sir M. Nathan's Despatch of the 21st February last.
But the current work is also increasing steadily,
a8
is partly shown by the following table giving the
totals of letters received and sent in the years 1902
and 1905 respectively.
1902.
1905.
Received
694
873
Sent
545
699
These figures do not include the Chinese corres-
pondence.
It is pertinent to the question asked by the
Hongkong Government to state how the four Powers who
have established Post Offices at this Port, France,
Germany, Japan and Russia have dealt with the matter.
I have ascertained the facts from information kindly
supplied to me by my consular colleagues concerned.
All the four Post Offices are installed in separate
premises from the Consulates, and only one the Japan-
ese, is even in the same compound.
French (exclusive of a military post office) one
French postmaster, 1 French 1st class clerk, 1 Chin-
ese interpreter, 2 Chinese facteurs.
German, Three Europeans, 2 Chinese shroffs,
Chinese clerk, 5 Chinese messengers, 1 Chinese
1
14
16
coolie,
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