ELIZABETH CHEUNG ELIZABETH.CHEUNG@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Monday, 05 October, 2015, 11:54am
UPDATED : Monday, 05 October, 2015, 2:16pm
A post box bearing the British royal insignia in Cheung Chau. Photo: SCMP Pictures
A conservationist is suspecting that political motivations fuelled a decision by the city’s postal services to cover the British royal insignia on remaining post boxes.
Local media reported that Hongkong Post decided to cover royal insignia on the remaining 59 old post boxes built during the colonial period before 1997.
While most of the 59 post boxes carried the royal insignia of Queen Elizabeth II, the oldest one, erected during the reign of King George V, has been in use for around 100 years.
Peter Li Siu-man of the Conservancy Association told the South China Morning Post he suspected the decision may have been politically motivated.
“We were really taken aback," he said. "Back in 2010 when they planned to remove the GRV post box in Lamma Island, we wrote to them about the importance of these post boxes.
"Hongkong Post finally agreed to not remove it and even repaired it."
Li said his association had no idea the plan was in the works and was only told about it on September 9.
"We were angry that they went back on their promise," he continued. "They did not even say they would think about not doing it. Maybe it is the decolonisation hype?"
Li said the post boxes should be left as they are and HongKong Post had given them no indication when they might begin covering them.
Last month Chen Zuoer, former deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, said Hong Kong failed to properly carry out de-colonisation and that this struggle had contributed to the city’s ongoing political tensions.
READ MORE: Former Beijing official continues call for Hong Kong to shake off its colonial past
While Li suggested covering signs with a lid, instead of a mounted metal piece, to allow people to still see the original design on the post box, he said the plan was rejected by the government-run Hongkong Post.
Tam Wing-pong, a former postmaster general, said he “did not understand” the rationale behind the new plan. He said the government kept the original post boxes during the handover in 1997 due to practical reasons.
“It is more practical to keep post boxes that were still in use,” said Tam, who headed the postal services department from 2006 to 2008. “Designs were changed only for newly built post boxes.”
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/economy/article/1864182/hongkong-post-cover-royal-insignia-old-boxes-conservationist
