44
360
I deferred mooting the question until arrival here, fearing that the Government would not consent to ... my incurring so large an expenditure on my behalf.
As I thought, I came across a writer the other day, who, being resident in Hongkong, was willing to work with me for $15 a month, and I accordingly applied for a teacher's allowance of that amount, which has been refused.
What is then my position? It is briefly this:- The Government - having deliberately and of its own free will sent me to Peking to learn Mandarin, refuses to provide me with the means of retaining the knowledge of that dialect, which, as the Government is well aware, is not spoken by a single soul in Hongkong with the exception of myself and one or two Chinese.
Furthermore, when I say that I want assistance in the drawing up of proclamations, the writing of notes, and the translation of documents, it is insinuated that the fact of my making such an assertion argues me incompetent to perform the duties for which I am paid.
The Foreign Office might as well refuse to pay for the Chinese Secretary's staff of writers daily at work in the British Legation, on the ground that having accepted the post...