-6-
9.
10.
(2)
A newly appointed officer will wish to have some idea of how long he will have to wait for a quarter and whether it is better for him to leave his family at home until a quarter is available. It is difficult to give a simple answer and the only generalisation that can be made is that quarters are more easily obtainable in the summer (May to September), when more officers tend to take their home leave, than in the winter. As mentioned in para. 8(1) above, the points system takes into account an officer's salary, length of previous service, the size of his family in the Colony and any period spent in an hotel or temporary quarters. The points system is weighted in favour of an officer with a family in the Colony so if other factors are equal an officer with two or three children would have a better chance of obtaining a quarter than an officer without children, although this is evened out to some extent because not all Government Quarters are large enough for a family and some are not conveniently located in relation to schools. On the other hand an officer with longer previous service or receiving a higher salary would probably be better placed in competition with an officer with the same number of children, though the points system is so arranged that the officer who has spent a longer period in an hotel is awarded points at a higher rate than one who has only recently gone into an hotel. In very general terms it could be said that it would be unusual for any newly-appointed officer to get a Government quarter in less than a month, even in the summer; in the winter a family man might have to stay in a hotel for three to six months, a married couple even longer. Officers should budget for these conditions as hotels in the Colony are relatively expensive and the charges for meals, laundry, tips etc, can absorb a large proportion of an officer's salary, particularly if he has a large family (see 8(v) for hotel subsistance allowance).
(3) This paragraph is only intended to give an outline of quartering matters,
and on arrival in Hong Kong officers are provided with a detailed guide to quartering procedure which deals with the quartering allocation and points system, the rules applicable to payment of hotel subsistence allowance, the private tenancy scheme and such matters as the transport of personal effects to and from quarters.
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN FOR LEAVE AND PASSAGES
On arrival in Hong Kong (or on assumption of duty by a locally appointed officer) a newly-appointed officer is required to declare a "country of origin for leave and passage purposes". "Country of origin" means the country declared by the officer as being his country of origin and accepted as such by the Establishment Secretary at the time of his appointment.
LEAVE OF ABSENCE AND LENGTH OF TOUR
I: Vacation Leave
The officer will be on what are known as the "new leave term". If the officer completes his tour of service, or if his services are terminated by the Government (see Section 16) for reasons other than misconduct, he may be granted, at the discretion of the Government, vacation leave as follows :-
Length of tour:
Officers under the age of 40 (unless over the age of 35 and with an aggregate of 10 years Colonial Service)
2+ years
Officers who have attained the age of 40 regardless of length of service, or are over the age of 35 with an
'aggregate of 10 years' Colonial Service
21 years
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