Post_Office_1959-1960 — Page 16

the figures for 1958/59. The steady annual rise in this traffic is reflected in the following table:

Year

1954/55

1955/56

1956/57

1957/58

1958/59

Number of Items

2,241,799

2,392,650

2,941,485

་ ་ ་

3,229,863

3,384,510 3,827,469

1959/60

55. The registered letter service to China was resumed on 4th January, 1960.

FORCES-MAIL

56. Mail for Navy, Army and Air Force Units continued to be dealt with by the Fleet Mail Office and the Army Post Office in close liaison with this Department. Mail arrangements for visiting warships were made in liaison with the respective national postal administrations.

CHRISTMAS AND CHINESE NEW YEAR POSTINGS

57. Each successive year during the last decade has seen new records in the quantities of Christmas mail handled by the Hong Kong Post Office. 1959 was no exception. Indeed the advance in local postings over 1958 was substantial and amounted to approximately half a million items, the aggregate during the ten days preceding Christmas Day being six and a half million. Moreover, on two days the million mark was passed.

58. Christmas parcel mail from Hong Kong to countries overseas increased in total as compared with 1958 but varied with respect to different countries; a slight fall of 10,375 parcels to the United Kingdom being shown but an increase of the order of 20% to 35,038 parcels to the United States of America. The number of small packets for the United Kingdom, however, showed a very considerable increase. Parcels for Canada were a little greater in number at 11,655. Registered articles, a high proportion of them packets, increased substantially to all destina- tions.

59. Christmas mails from abroad arriving in much greater quantities than in 1958 during the week before Christmas served to complicate the handling of local mail, the increase being over 50% for all classes of mail. Once again air mail despatched during the period weighed over 30 tons.

60. Staffing arrangements made to cope with the seasonal pressure were much the same as in the previous years and the special features of

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