Malki Issa Addi (1 March 1917 – 29 March 1992) was a British colonial postal official of Turkish origin who served as the Postmaster General of Hong Kong from March 1971 to March 1977.In August 1979, the Hong Kong Government announced that the Chinese title of "Postmaster General" was changed from "郵政司" (Yau Zing Si) to "郵政署長" (Yau Zing Cyu Zoeng). The Chinese name of the "Post Office" was also changed to "郵政署" (Postal Department). The English and Chinese names of the "General Post Office" remained unchanged, although local post offices continued to be commonly referred to as "郵政局". "D. J. K. Bamford succeeded as Postmaster General" (21 August 1979).
During his tenure, Addi oversaw the relocation of the General Post Office from Pedder Street in Central, Hong Kong, which led to the completion and opening of the new General Post Office on newly reclaimed land at Connaught Place in 1976, while the old, classical-style General Post Office built in 1911 was demolished in the same year. In addition, he strove to bring innovations to Hong Kong's postal services, which included launching the Speedpost service in 1973—making Hong Kong the first place outside the United Kingdom and the United States to do so—and introducing the Accelerated Surface Post (ASP) service in 1974. The Hong Kong Philatelic Bureau under the Post Office was also established under his leadership in 1975.
The greatest controversy during Addi's tenure as Postmaster General was his involvement in the Hong Kong Government's submission of the Post Office Bill 1975 to the Legislative Council in February 1975, which attempted to completely ban air freight forwarders and courier companies from delivering commercial documents and letters. However, the bill quickly faced strong resistance from the business sector, led primarily by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, preventing the bill from being submitted for its third reading in March as scheduled. Subsequently, as the Hong Kong government suspended the legislative work, the controversy surrounding the bill temporarily subsided. However, in September 1976, the government proposed resubmitting the revised bill to the Legislative Council in October, provoking another business backlash. The "Ad Hoc Committee against the Post Office Bill" was formed to block the government's legislative efforts. Facing fierce criticism from the business community, the government ultimately took the rare step of announcing another postponement of the legislation on 21 October, meaning that the legislative attempt ended in failure.
Earlier in his career, Addi joined the Government of Mandatory Palestine in 1936 to work in postal services, and subsequently served in Nyasaland in Africa, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and the Crown Colony of North Borneo in Southeast Asia. He arrived in Hong Kong in 1959 to serve as Senior Postal Accountant, and was later promoted to Chief Postal Accountant in 1962 and Deputy Postmaster General in 1968. After retiring from the Hong Kong Government in 1977, Addi decided to emigrate with his family to California, United States, where he opened the Sunflower Travel agency, which he operated until his death in 1992.
Early life Malki Addi was born on 1 March 1917 in Midyat, Mardin Province, Ottoman Empire (the predecessor of Turkey) to Issa Addi and Elizabeth Khoury.Lee (1966), p.5. Although Turkey was a predominantly Islamic country, Addi's family was Christian. In his youth, he was sent to Jerusalem, then part of Mandatory Palestine (the predecessor of Israel and Palestine), where he was educated at a church school, Bishop Gobat School.The Colonial Office List (1966), p.186.
Colonial career After graduating from secondary school in 1936, Addi joined the Government of Mandatory Palestine in the same year, working in a junior position in the Department of Posts and Telegraphs. Following the dissolution of Mandatory Palestine in 1948, he was transferred to the Palestine Accounts Clearance Office, temporarily established by the British Government in Cyprus, to assist in winding up the accounts of the former Mandatory Palestine government. Addi had acquired Palestinian citizenship during his residence in Palestine. After completing his work in Cyprus, he was granted naturalization as a British subject by the Home Office in November 1949. This enabled him to remain in the British government service, and in the same year, he was temporarily attached to the headquarters of the Colonial Office in London as a temporary civil servant."Issue 38785 ", London Gazette, 16 December 1949, p.5956.
In 1950, Addi was officially appointed by the Colonial Office as an Assistant Postmaster in Nyasaland (the predecessor of Malawi), Africa. He was subsequently promoted to Assistant Accountant in 1952 and Accountant in 1955. During his tenure, he was seconded to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland as Superintendent of Savings Bank from 1954 to 1956. In 1957, he was transferred to the colonial government of the Crown Colony of North Borneo, where he served as Accountant in the local Department of Posts and Telegraphs. Two years later, in 1959, he was further transferred to the Post Office under the Government of Hong Kong, where he was promoted to Senior Postal Accountant."C. G. Folwell to retire next spring, Malki Addi to succeed as Postmaster General" (30 December 1970) During his service in Hong Kong, he was repeatedly promoted, including to Chief Postal Accountant in 1962, and to Deputy Postmaster General in 1968, succeeding C. G. Folwell, who was elevated to Postmaster General. During his tenure as Deputy Postmaster General, he acted as Postmaster General on several occasions and was appointed an Official Justice of the Peace (JP) by the Hong Kong Government in 1969.
Postmaster General of Hong Kong
Relocation of the General Post Office In March 1971, Addi succeeded C. G. Folwell as Postmaster General, after Folwell proceeded on pre-retirement leave. The position of Deputy Postmaster General was filled by D. J. K. Bamford, who was brought in from the East African Posts and Telecommunications Administration."D. J. K. Bamford promoted to Postmaster General" (9 November 1976) As Postmaster General, he also concurrently held several related public offices, including Director of Telecommunications, Chairman of the Hong Kong Communications Board, Chairman of the Stamp Advisory Committee, Controller of Telephone Allocations, as well as a member of the Advisory Committee on Telephone Services and the Television Advisory Board.
During Addi's tenure, public demand for postal services continued to rise. In terms of mail volume alone, the total number of items handled by the Post Office increased from 240 million in 1971 to 305 million in 1977;Hong Kong Annual Report 1971 (1972), p.174.Hong Kong Annual Report 1977 (1978), p.148. during the same period, the number of post offices grew from 59 to 73. While postal services were expanding, the future of the General Post Office on Pedder Street in Central became a subject of public discussion. Although the building, completed in 1911, had a classical design, its interior had fallen into disrepair and its structure had deteriorated. It was difficult to make space for installing mechanized, large-scale mail sorting equipment, forcing the GPO to rely on traditional manual mail-handling methods. In an interview inside the General Post Office in 1973, Addi complained that the ceiling of the building's veranda was riddled with cracks, raising concerns that the building could collapse.Hutcheon (12 March 1973) Furthermore, whenever there was piling work at nearby construction sites, his office desk would vibrate constantly, leading him to remark, "...if the building survives all the recent piling work, it's just due to our good luck".
Against this background, the Hong Kong Government had decided as early as 1969 to build a brand new General Post Office on newly reclaimed land between the Central Star Ferry Pier and Blake Pier on the north shore of Hong Kong Island."About Us: The Old General Post Office Building" (Accessed on 8 August 2019) However, it was not until Addi assumed office as Postmaster General in 1971 that the authorities formally commissioned the British Postal Consultancy Service under the British Post Office to conduct detailed studies and planning for the new GPO, as well as to investigate building a Colony Transit and Sorting Office at Hung Hom, Kowloon, on the opposite side of the harbor.Hong Kong Annual Report 1971 (1972), p.175. To alleviate the urgent situation, Addi moved the inward parcel section of the GPO in early 1972 to a temporary building on the newly reclaimed land across Connaught Road Central, allowing the GPO to free up more space to concentrate on mail handling.Hong Kong Annual Report 1972 (1973), p.145. At the same time, an enclosed overhead conveyor bridge spanning Connaught Road Central, which connected the GPO to the newly reclaimed land (popularly nicknamed the "Bridge on the River Kwai"), was fitted with a new conveyor system to facilitate the relocation.
After years of preparation, construction of the new General Post Office formally commenced in April 1973,"New General Post Office Building construction to start in April" (19 February 1973) and was completed in 1976. The opening ceremony was hosted by the then Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Murray MacLehose, on 11 August of that year. Following the decommissioning of the old GPO on Pedder Street, it was eventually demolished at the end of 1976. The site was redeveloped for commercial use into the 27-story World-Wide House, while the underground portion was used for the construction of the MTR Central station. On the other hand, the new General Post Office, located on the reclaimed land at Connaught Place, was a five-story building covering an area of over 150,000 square feet. Modern facilities inside the building included a mail bag conveyor chain system approximately 1,000 feet long, a conveyor system capable of delivering 45,000 letters per hour from the sorting section, and a stamp cancelling machine capable of sorting and postmarking 25,000 letters per hour.Hong Kong Annual Report 1976 (1977), p.148. Additionally, the new building provided 12,400 PO boxes, nearly doubling the 6,700 boxes of the old building. Its architectural design adjacent to Victoria Harbour also allowed docked Royal Mail tenders to automatically load and unload mail. More than forty years after the opening of the new GPO, the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council passed funding in October 2018 to relocate the General Post Office next to the Central Mail Centre in Kowloon Bay, with the original site slated for commercial and recreational redevelopment, and demolition expected to begin in 2023."Relocation of General Post Office: HK$1.6 billion funding passed" (20 October 2018)
As for the Colony Transit and Sorting Office studied during Addi's tenure, it was later renamed the International Mail Centre, though its construction plan was repeatedly delayed.Hong Kong Annual Report 1973 (1974), p.145. It was not until 1975 that the Hong Kong Government launched the first phase of the project, with piling work officially beginning as late as November 1976.Hong Kong Annual Report 1975 (1976), p.141. Located in Hung Hom, the International Mail Centre finally opened in June 1980, by which time Addi had already retired."Official commemorative cover and 3D card issued to mark the closure of the International Mail Centre on March 8 (with photos)" (21 February 2014) To accommodate the construction of the MTR Corporation's Shatin to Central Link, the centre was officially closed in March 2014 and replaced by the newly completed Central Mail Centre in Kowloon Bay."Closure of International Mail Centre Post Office" (28 February 2014)
1975 Post Office Bill