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No. 9.— Notification of promotion of higher grade Postal Officials. The Berne Bureau forwarded a proposal from the Egyptian Office that the offices of the Union should be kept informed of the personnel of the higher class of the various Administrations, and that the " Postal Union Journal" might give this information, which could be supplied to the Editor by the Head Offices. We see no objection to the information being given, restricted, however, to the Ministers, Permanent Heads, and Heads of Principal Branches. No. 10.— Postal Guides: uniformity of We recommend that the Postmaster-General of South Australia be asked to revise a Guide on uniform lines, and submit the same to next Conference. No. 11.— Post Cards of private manufacture: Regulations. We beg to recommend that private cards, bearing adhesive stamps of proper value, measuring not less than 4* x 3", andnot more than b\" x 3\", not of thicker material than that used for official Post Cards, be adopted in the various Colonies, and accepted reciprocally under the same conditions as official Post Cards. In reference to this matter the London Office wrote asking the following four questions :— (1) Whether a plain card with an adhesive stamp might reasonably be allowed to circulate in the Union as a postcard under the usual regulations? (2) If not, whether a plain card with the word " post card " written upon it, and with an adhesive stamp, might reasonably be admitted ? (3) Whether any relaxation of rules that might be deemed reasonable for single cards should apply to reply cards ? (4) Whether, between the present time and the meeting of the Congress of Washington in 1897, any step can usefully be taken for giving effect to such relaxation as the prevailing sense of the Union might indicate ? "We recommend that these questions be answered as follows : — No. 1 Yes, provided they bear the ordinary Post Card rate. No. 2. Answered by No. 1. Nos. 3 and 4. We do not consider that the proposed concession should apply to Reply Cards at present. No. 12.— Letter Cards. (a) Uniform Exchange of. (b) Consideration of Berne Circular re rates chargeable thereon We see no objection to the uniform exchange of Letter Cards internationally ; but we respectfully point out that it will lead to a considerable loss of revenue unless the postage is the same as letter rate, and we recommend accordingly I'here is no valid reason why a cheaper rate of postage should be charged on letter cards than on ordinary letters, and it appears from a summary prepared by the Berne Bureau, which applied for information on the subject from the various Union Administrations, that in every part of the world where letter cards are in use, excepting Australasia, the rate of postage is the same as that of ordinary letters. Letter cards are closed against inspection, and are practically letters —the only difference being, that the Department supplies the material for letter cards at considerable cost, whilst that of ordinary letters is of course supplied by the sender; as, however, a lower rate has been in force, inland and intercolonially, we see some difficulty in now raising it. (c) Whether Victorian Letter Cards should not bear stamps equivalent to their face value— Victoria is charging each, as agreed to at the Wellington Conference, but under the present law is compelled to mark them with a face value of \d. We are, however, of opinion that it is undesirable and confusing to the public to mark the cards at a less value than they are sold for. No. 13.— Proposed discontinuance of Letter Bills intercolonially. We do not think it necessary that the number of Letters, Packets, and Newspapers should beentered on Letter Bills, but recommend that a more simple form of Letter Bill or Advice be prepared, on which should be entered Registered Letters, Forward Mails, and Money Order Packets. New South Wales to prepare the form. Of course the usual records will be kept for statistical purposes. No. 14.— Revision of Australasian Convention. We beg to report that time has not permitted the careful revision of the Australasian Convention, but we propose to deal with it later on.