Colonial Surgeon
Government Civil Hospital.
Hong Kong 29th May 1886.
I learned today, first by public rumour, then by direct enquiry from yourself and elsewhere that you had applied for five month's leave from proximo; four months' vacation leave and one month on half pay, that you had proposed Dr Jordan as Head of the Medical Department during your absence; and that the officiating Governor had sanctioned both your leave and Dr. Jordan's appointment. In abstaining from all communication with me on the subject of your intended absence and your proposed arrangement for the work of the Department for five months, you may perhaps have been strictly within the letter of the regulations, and by a rigid interpretation of the law I might be declared to have nothing to complain of.
In the circumstances, however, and after thirteen years of intimate official connection, your action is a personal slight to me, and if your proposed arrangement were to take effect, it would be a public slight in the eyes of the Colony, and a grievous injury.