2.
Although we appreciate that officers who
It
contravene these rules are only liable to summary dismissal and that this is useful because it enables us to terminate services quickly in cases of genuine abscondment, it seems to us that it is quite wrong that an officer who takes a day trip to Macau without permission whilst on leave thereby renders himself liable to such a heavy penalty. must often happen for instance that an officer does not decide he wants to go to Macau or Bangkok or Manila until after his leave has started and fails to obtain permission either because it is too difficult or because he simply forgets it is necessary until he is half way to his destination.
If you have no objection we propose therefore to modify our CSRS and to give general permission to visit Macau in the first instance, perhaps extending this to other countries later. I have in mind a new CSR 468 on the lines of the attached draft.
Encl
Your
John
(A.J. Hunter)