§ MR. HENNIKER HEATON (Canterbury)To ask the Postmaster-General whether penny postage is established between Great Britain and Shanghai, Amoy, Canton, and other places in China where there are British post offices, or agencies of the Hong Kong post office; if so, whether, under these circumstances, he will give instructions for the penny postage system to be extended to the British post offices at Constantinople and Salonica from this country; and what is the estimated cost of this reform.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) There is at present a penny post for letters between this country and the agencies maintained by the Hong Kong Post Office at Shanghai and other places 1512 in the Chinese Empire. That Empire has not yet joined the Postal Union and the position of the Hong Kong agencies is therefore different from that of the British agencies in the Ottoman Empire, which like Great Britain is a member of the Union. Having regard to this and other circumstances of the case, it is not intended at present to extend the penny rate to these offices.