30 AUGUST 1902, Page 2

An important announcement was made on Tuesday by the Postmaster-General.

On and after September 1st there will be a parcel post with the United States. The limits of size will be the same as in the case of the inland parcel post,'and while the postal charges vary according to weight and destine, tion, they will never exceed six shillings for the maximum weight of eleven pounds. In addition to this there are the Custom-duties and the " storage fee " of a shilling on each parcel, both of which can be paid in advance. The latter fee represents the interest of the United States Government, which has nothing to do with the distribution of the parcels in America, that being undertaken by the American Express Company, one of the chief parcel-carrying corporations in the States. Negotiations with a view to establishing this service have been going on ever since 1885, when the Foreign and Parcel Post was first established, and reached their final stage early this year. It has been the good fortune of Mr. Austen Chamberlain that he should be able to Inaugurate his official career at St. Martin's-le-Grand with the settlement of this important question.