Post_Office_1956-1957 — Page 16

year. The telegraphic communications of the Colony are well served by several deep sea cables linked to the Company's world- wide network of 150,000 miles of submarine cables and their 15 direct high speed wireless telegraph circuits working with other countries in the Far East and beyond.

78. During the year one new radiotelegraph circuit was opened, to Hanoi.

79. The overseas radiotelephone services, worked in collabora- tion with the Hong Kong Telephone Company, continue to expand. During the year new services were opened with Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Okinawa, Panama, French Morocco, Tangier, Tunisia, Algeria, and the U.S.S.R. Relay Services via Hong Kong were opened between Taipei and London, between Bangkok and U.S.A., between Borneo and the United Kingdom, and between Indonesia and Macau.

80. The existing telephone schedules to the U.S.A., Taipei and Manila were extended in length.

81. The Company's "Harborfone" service continues to be extensively used. Any ship within the harbour can be fitted with a V.H.F. radiotelephone installation on hire, giving direct connexion between ship and ship, or from ship to any subscriber on the Hong Kong Telephone Exchange. Some 300 calls a day are now being made to and from ships in the harbour.

82. Hong Kong local traffic figures for the year ending 31st March, 1957;-

Telegrams accepted for transmission

Telegrams delivered

Radiophone minutes transmitted

Radiophone minutes received

Radio pictures received-11 pictures

Radio pictures transmitted-178 pictures

J

Press broadcasts-words handled

Meteorological broadcasts-words handled Inland telegrams

ACCOMMODATION

963,925

1,123,460

457,853

684.827

52,168 sq. cms. 2,157 sq. cms.

55,000,000

800,000

3,342

83. There are still two major problems in regard to accommodation. Firstly, the inadequacy of space at the major despatching offices of Hong Kong and Kowloon which, as the figures in this and previous reports make obvious, becomes annually more and more acute.

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