Annual report on the Malayan Union.

Date:
[1948]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the Malayan Union. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    179/234 (page 147)
    The money transmission service of the Post Office was used to an unprecedented extent, money orders issued totalling 434,653 to the value of $40,410,917. Money orders totalled 239,399 to the value of $22,396,958. All Post Offices transact Savings Bank business. The number of depositors at the end of the year in Malayan Post Office Savings Banks (including the Straits Settlements Savings Bank) was 280,071 and the total amount on deposit was $70,898,599 compared with 253,783 depositors and $58,745,643 on deposit at the end of 1947. Transactions in the Savings Banks amounted to $43,009,161 deposited and $32,256,123 withdrawn. Arrangements have been completed to amalgamate on the 1st January, 1949, the Savings Banks of the Federated Malay States, Johore, Kedah, Kelantan and the Penang and Malacca Sections of the Straits Settlements Bank in one Savings Bank for the Federation of Malaya. Recreation clubs catering for both physical and intellectual activities were in operation at Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Penang and Taiping. At Penang a holiday bungalow is maintained for the use of the clerical staff in the Postal Department. Telecommunications. The office of the Director-General of Telecommunications, Federation of Malaya and Singapore, is in Kuala Lumpur where the main Stores, Workshops, Accounts Branch are also situated. Despite slow delivery of materials from the United Kingdom, shortage of senior staff and the additional burden brought about by the Emergency which arose in June, much valuable progress has been made during the year. * Rehabilitation of services to the pre-war level is well advanced but there is still much to be done before an entirely satisfactory service is obtained. Telegraph Services. The number of telegraph offices and Railway telegraph agencies has remained unchanged at 282. Teleprinter circuits increased from 17 to 18 and phonogram circuits from 171 to 173. The number of manual morse circuits had been reduced to 9 at the end of the year. The number of telegrams handled showed a slight fall from 1,581,149 in 1947 to 1,501,145 in 1948. The Public Teleprinter Service instituted in 1947 has proved popular and now has 18 subscribers using 40 teleprinter stations. Seven subscribers could not be provided with service as equipment had to be diverted for the provision of a teleprinter network linking together the main Police Headquarters along the West Coast. Telephone Services. The number of telephone instruments in service increased by 29 per cent, over the previous year to 17,553. The arrival of 228 Private Branch Exchange Switchboards early in the year improved the facilities available for the larger subscribers. At the end of the year there were 5,049 outstanding applications for telephone service, for which the requisite equipment was not available. Trunk telephone traffic also increased considerably as shown by an increase in revenue from this source by nearly one-third over the