Post_Office_1954-1955 — Page 11

TRAIN MAILS

28. The majority of mails to and from the China Mainland were forwarded by means of the Kowloon-Canton Railway service, although some mails for Swatow and Amoy were for- warded by ships calling at those ports. Considerable transit mails from the U.S.S.R. continued to be received for forwarding to various destinations.

29. Until December, 1954, mails for the China Mainland continued to be forwarded from Hong Kong as far as Lo Wu where they were offloaded and manually transferred across the border to another train at Shum Chun (now renamed Poantg). This laborious method of transferring the mails slowed down transmission and also limited the amount which could be despatched in each direction.

30. With the ready cooperation of the General Manager of the Kowloon-Canton Railway, it was possible, in December, 1954, as a result of an agreement with the Chinese Railway Authorities, to inaugurate a system of 'through' mail coaches which eliminated the manual transfer at Lo Wu/Poantg. The introduction of these mail coaches enabled all mail on hand to be forwarded at the same time, and it was noted, particularly in the first few months of 1955 covered by this report, that there was a notable increase in mail being carried by the Railway. A total of 81,158 bags in all were carried during the year.

31. This speed up resulted in the earlier arrival at Kowloon of the China mail, and mail despatched one day was able to be sorted and delivered by the next morning. It was also possible in many cases to despatch air and surface transit mails on the same day as they were received.

32. The increase in the daily flow of train mails, however, further complicated the very severe limitations of storage space available in the Post Office and the provision of a building to enable mails to be handled at Kowloon is eagerly awaited.

33. Normal services were maintained to Taiwan,

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