during a period of vacation leave on the mainland of China.
I have to observe that Sir M. Hicks Beach's despatch of 14th Sept. 1878 to which you refer despatch No. 320, in June and Lord Kimberley's despatch No. 137 of 27th June 1882, go beyond an order of 14th Dec. 1886 prohibiting private work, undertaken during service, within the Colony, and the last paragraph of Mr. Stanhope's Circular of 21st Dec. 1886 only prohibited private Employment during leave spent in the Colony, but there is at present no regulation forbidding an officer taking outside the Colony work during such leave of absence.
I am unable therefore to refuse permission to Mr. Boulton to accept the honorarium offered to him in the present case.