Directory_and_Chronicle_1916 — Page 567

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HONGKONG POSTAL GUIDE

95. The importation into Hongkong through the Post Office of any lottery ticket or advertisement of any lottery, or of any letter, post-card or circular concerning any lottery, is prohibited. The Postmaster-General may seize all such lottery tickets and letters, post-cards or circulars concerning a lottery and cause the same to be returned to the Post Office at which they were mailed.

96.-The Postmaster-General may seize and destroy all seditious publications. 97.-Nothing sent through the post may contain an enclosure which is directed to a name and an address different from the name and address borne on the cover, and which is enclosed with the intention of evading postage. Any such forbidden enclosure, if observed, is liable to be taken out and forwarded to the addressee charged with separate postage at the prepaid rate. (See "Postal Hong packets" under Appendix II.)

98.-It is forbidden to forward by post any Post-card having thereon any word, marks or designs of an indecent, obscene or grossly offensive character. Any such shall be stopped and dealt with by the Postmaster-General as the circumstances of the case may require.

Poste Restante

99.--All letters and other Postal packets superscribed "To be kept till called for," "To await arrival," or in any similar way, and also those addressed "Post Office," or "Hongkong" without any other address are held to fall under the head "Poste Restante."

100.-When correspondence is received addressed to parties in "Hongkong" with- out a full address, and no request has been received from the addressee regarding it or his name does not appear in the Directory, such correspondence will be placed in Poste Restante.

101. The Poste Restante being intended solely for the accommodation of strangers and travellers who have no permanent abode in the town, letters or other postal packets for residents must not be addressed to the Post Office to be called for, nor will letters or postal packets be kept in the Poste Restante longer than the following periods, viz.:-

Local letters for 1 month Foreign

"

Letters for steamers

for 3 months

17

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2 months

sailing vessels 4 102.-Letters or other postal packets addressed to initials or to fictitious names or to a Christian name without a surname are not taken in at the Poste Restante, but are at once sent to the Returned Letter Branch for disposal.

103.-All persons applying for letters at the Poste Restante must furnish the particulars required to ensure proper delivery, and must sign the register. If the addressee does not apply in person, his messenger must be furnished with the required information and must produce a written authority to receive the correspondence. If a foreigner, the applicant must produce his passport or other credentials.

Re-direction

104.-Letters, book packets, post cards, newspaper and book packets are not liable to additional postage for re-direction whether re-directed by an officer of the Post Office or by an agent of the addressees after delivery, provided in the latter case that the letters, &c., are re-posted not later than the day (Sundays and public holidays not being counted) after delivery, and that they do not appear to have been opened or tam- pered with. Re-directed registered letters must not be dropped into a letter box, but must be handed to an officer of the Post Office to be dealt with as registered.

105.-Re-directed letters, &c., which are re-posted later than the day after delivery will be liable to charge at the prepaid rate. Any which appear to have been opened or tampered with will be chargeable as freshly posted unpaid letters or packets.

106.-Parcels when re-directed are liable to additional postage at the prepaid rate for each re-direction except when the original and corrected addresses are both within a delivery of the same Post Office.

107.-Correspondence directed to care of boxholders in Hongkong must, without exception, be delivered as addressed. The Post Office does not undertake the redirec- tion of correspondence for a person temporarily leaving home, unless the house be left uninhabited; nor does it undertake to re-direct correspondence addressed to clubs, hotels, boarding houses, lodgings, business firms, &c. Correspondence may not be re-directed from a private address to the Poste Restante in the Colony.

108.-Request for the re-direction of correspondence must be in writing. The precise address of the correspondence must be given.

109.-No request for re-direction will be acted upon for more than three months, at the end of which time the correspondence resumes its usual course.