Directory_and_Chronicle_1922 — Page 481

HONGKONG POSTAL GUIDE

427

87.-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.

88.-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

2 months

Letters for steamers

for 3 months

""

sailing vessels 4

""

""

89.-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.

90. 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

91.-Letters, post-cards, printed papers, commercial papers and sample 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 tampered with. In cases, however, where a letter is re-directed to any place and bears postage stamps insufficient to pay the postage from the Office of origin to the said Place direct, then the extra postage must be affixed before forwarding or the letter will 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.

92.-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.

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

94.-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.

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

96.-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.

97.- 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

98.-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 Office, 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.