Post_Office_1956-1957 — Page 10

annual rise is adequately reflected in the following comparative figures for the past six years:

Year.

1951/52

1952/53

1953/54

1954/55

1955/56

Number of Items.

2,141,066

2,162,206

2,174,004

2,241,799

2,392,650

2,589,047

1956/57

35. Despite continual pressure from the United Kingdom and other Administrations, it has still been unfortunately necessary on account of lack of accommodation to maintain the suspension of registration and insurance services to the China Mainland.

Forces Mail

36. Mail for Naval, Army and Air Force Units continued to be dealt with by the Fleet Mail Office and British Army Post Office in close liaison with this Department, whilst mail arrange- ments for visiting foreign warships continued in liaison with the respective national postal Administrations.

Christmas Postings

37. In my report for last year I stated that owing to the continued increase in seasonal Christmas traffic it would be necessary in future years to engage temporary additional staff. This proved to be the case and 35 temporary mail coolies were engaged for a period of two weeks.

38. That this extra staff was justified is evident in the still further increase of over 500,000 items over the previous record total, including a record daily posting of 611,000 on 22nd December, 1956.

39. The difficulty of handling this heavy load was further complicated by the unusually heavy despatches and receipts of overseas mail which amounted to the staggering total of 20,971 bags over the Christmas rush period and, even with the extra handling staff, our resources and energy were strained to the utmost.

40. Chinese New Year, too, produced it's crop of records at over 1,500,000 items and it will probably be necessary next year to recruit additional staff for this period also.

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