6. The definitions of
221
"mail bag",
66
master of a ship", and "officer of the Post Office" are adapted from the Post Office Act.
17
7. The definition of the term "person follows a form which has been used in several recent Ordinances. The effect of the novelty in this definition is that it makes a prosecution possible against a firm.
8. The definition of the term << Straits Ordinance.
postage stamp" is taken from the
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9. The term "postal article" is taken from the Straits Ordinance. It means everything which is transmissible by post. It is distinguish- ed from the term postal packer", which means an article which is actually being transmitted by post. The terms postal packet" and "packet" are frequently used in the Stockholm Convention with reference to articles which are being transmitted by post.
In the Post Office Act, the term postal packet" is used as meaning an article which is transmissible by post.
10. The definitions of the terms "
post office" and " post office letter are taken from the Post Office Act.
box
11. The definition of the term "ship" follows the Straits Ordinance in including a reference to aireraft.
12. Sub-clause (2) of clause 2 is adapted from the Post Office Act, B. 90.
REGULATIONS.
13. Clause 3 coutains the power to make regulations. Paragraph (s) of sub-clause (1) gives a general power, but it was thought advis- able to insert also references to particular subjects on which regulations might be made.
EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE.
14. Clause 6 gives the Postmaster General the exclusive privilege of conveying, despatching and receiving letters in the cases specified. The exceptions in sub-clause (1) are adapted from the Post Office Act. Sub-clause (2) deals with the special case of clubbed packets for and from China. Sub-clause (3) contains a series of definite prohibitions intended to enforce the above exclusive privilege. Sub-clause (5) gives the Governor in Council power to apply the section to postal articles other than letters. A power of this kind was found advisable during the war, and section 5 of Ordinance No. 17 of 1915, gave the Governor in Council a limited power of this nature.
EXEMPTION FROM LIABILITY.
15. The exemption of the Government from liability which is provided for in clause 7 is based on sections 13 and 23 (4) of the Post Office Act, and sections 13 and 54 of the Straits Ordinance.
OPENING AND DISPOSAL OF CERTAIN POSTAL PACKETS.
16. Clause 10 gives power to open postal packets which cannot be despatched or which cannot be delivered. The disposal of such packets is dealt with in clanse 14.
17. Clause 11 gives the Postmaster General discretion to return to the sender any postal packet which has been posted by mistake or which has been posted with wrong or deficient contents,
"uch cases frequently occur, Lut under the existing law no correspondence can be returned to the sender without a warrant signed by the Governor. This means delay, and the delay frequently involves the missing of a mail. Cause 11 has no precedent in the Post Office Act, 1908, but paragraph 1 of Article 45 of the Convention of Stockholm, 1924, lays down that "The sender of a postal packet can have it withdrawn from the post..........
...so long as the article has not been delivered to the addressee ". Such a provision as is contained in clause 11 is bound to be of great convenience in any place, such as Hongkong, where a large part of the commercial correspondence is with distant places reached by mails which are frequently despatched at intervals of several days. The discretion will be easily exercised here, though it
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