Postal_Guide_July_1957 — Page 67

Miscellaneous

65

RECALL, DETENTION OR DIVERSION OF POSTAL PACKETS No letter, parcel or other postal packet can, when it has been posted in a post office receptacle or handed to any officer of the Post Office in the course of his duty, be taken out of the post, even if application be made for it by a person who can prove that he is the sender. Nor can it be detained or delayed even if a request to that effect appears upon the cover. It must be forwarded to its address, and cannot be diverted to any other address at the request of the sender. Similarly, applications to enclose articles inadvertently omitted from a postal packet cannot be entertained; nor can search be made for a letter, postcard or printed paper packet on which postage has not been fully paid.

REFUND OF POSTAGE

Full information regarding articles that can and that cannot be sent by post is published, under the proper heads in this Guide, and no application will be entertained for the refund of the value of postage stamps on correspondence which is discovered, after the postage stamps have been obliterated, to contain any prohibited article, or which exceeds the limit weight, or which for any other reason cannot be forwarded and has consequently to be returned to the sender, and any loss resulting from a non-observance of the rules by the sender of an article must be borne by him.

SECRECY OF THE POST

Postal officials have no discretionary powers to supply information respecting letters, or any kind of postal packet to persons other than those to whom they are addressed. They are not allowed to make public any official information of a private character.

UNPAID AND UNDERPAID INCOMING PACKETS

An unpaid or underpaid unregistered letter or other postal packet from abroad is charged on delivery with double the amount of the deficiency. Insufficiently paid packets must be either accepted and the postage due paid, or forthwith refused. Postmen are not permitted to allow a prior inspection of the contents.

VERIFICATION OF SURCHARGES

No one to whom a letter or other postal packet is tendered for delivery should pay any charge demanded in respect of unpaid postage unless a date-stamped postage due label (or labels) to the face value of the amount demanded is affixed to the cover of the packet.

Inquiries respecting surcharges should be addressed to the Postmaster General. In some cases it will suffice to enclose the cover, but if the packet was forwarded in an unsealed cover, the whole packet must be sent. The whole packet, before being opened if sealed, must also be produced if the surcharge is questioned on the ground of weight, and no question on this point can be entertained in respect of a closed packet which has been opened. If more convenient, the packet may be taken to any post office for the weight to be verified unless it was posted abroad, in which case it should be taken to General Post Office, Hong Kong.

The unit of weight for letters from countries using the metric system is 20 grammes (less than 4 ounce), and not 1 ounce as in the case of countries using the avoirdupois system; and surcharges may frequently be explained by the difference in the units of weight.