Directory_and_Chronicle_1920 — Page 467

HONGKONG POSTAL GUIDE

411

be taxed. 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 are when re-directed 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.-Requests 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.

110.- Correspondence directed to an addressee residing within the delivery limits of any of the British Post Office agencies in China may be intercepted in Hongkong on payment of a fee of $1 per mail.

Undelivered Correspondence

and

111.-An undelivered local letter or post-card bearing the full name address of the sender printed or written upon the outside is returned direct to the sender. Other undelivered local letters and post-cards are sent to the Returned Letter Branch, where they will be opened and returned, if possible, to the senders; if they contain neither sender's name nor address, nor any enclosure of importance, they will be destroyed. Letters found to contain articles of value are recorded and if returned are registered. Letters from abroad are returned unopened to the country of origin.

112.-Book packets and newspapers which cannot be delivered and which bear the name and address of the sender with a request for their return in case of non-delivery are returned direct to the sender on payment of a second postage. Those bearing no name or request for return are not returned to senders.

113.-All unpaid undelivered letters or post-cards shall be delivered to the senders only on the payment of amount charged thereon.

114.-If contrary to Rule 94 such articles as uncrossed Postal Notes, Cheques or Dividend Warrants, not payable to order, Bank Notes and Postage Stamps used, or unused, be found enclosed in unregistered correspondence when opened in the Returned Letter Office, such correspondence will be subject to Compulsory Registration and be charged with a registration fee of 20 cent.

Certificates of Posting

115.-Contrary to general usage, the Hongkong Post Office will give a Certificate of posting for an ordinary letter, to assure the sender his correspondence has not been stolen on the way to the Post. The conditions under which the Certificate will be given are as follows:

(1.) The certificate of posting written in ink must be presented to an officer on duty at the Post Office together with the article to be posted during the hours which the Post Office is open to the public.

(2.) The certificate must contain an exact copy of the address on the article to which it relates and must have a postage stamp value one cent affixed thereto.

(3.) The officer to whom the article and certificate are presented will compare the address on the article with the certificate, and if it be correct will obliterate the postage stamp and impress the date stamp on the certificate and return the certificate to the person posting the article. (4.) The granting of such certificate affords the public an assurance that letters and other articles entrusted to servants and messengers for posting have actually been posted, but implies no responsibility on the part of the Post Office if such articles be lost or damaged in transit,

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