by
a man who has had no
and is
official training
strongly under this personal influence
of the Governor.
Sir J. Hennessy's
It is simply a defence of
Chinese
policy.
It appears to me to have been an error
to have allowed the custom to grow up of giving gratuities instead of pensions to Chinese without direct orders from home, but one of the arguments for it was that the Chinese preferred the lump sum down, this preference is shown by Dr. Eitel. The custom received the approval of the Secretary of State & was recommended by the Hong Kong authorities: it is left for Sir J. Hennessy to discover that he and Kimbaly were misled and that the custom was part & parcel of a regular System for oppressing the Chinese.
I think the custom was not wholly a fortunate or justifiable one as it does not seem to have left sufficient option as to pension or Gratuity to the retiring officer. But if it is to be amended I trust the absurdity of permitting one year's climate bonus for pension will not be allowed. It is true that in other colonies natives are given a climate bonus, but that does not make the practice less absurd, I wish it might be swept away in all. The difficulty is of course to decide who are natives & who are not. If Portuguese from Macao are given a climate bonus while Chinese are not, the course will have to be justified on the grounds that the fairest distinction is that between the native of this race and Immigrant.
You will observe that a large part of Dr. Eitel's remarks refer to Interpretation, it will be time enough to deal with them when Sir J. Hennessy sends his promised despatch on the subject, but I protest strongly against mixing up these various
Dec.
Page 180
Page 181
4