214
I owe an explanation to justify myself in the matter of my absence other than to state that on Monday the 24th November, the Surveyor General sent for me to his office and addressed me in a very acrimonious spirit in respect to my previous stay in Hospital (suffering from air attack poisoning) and terminated the conversation by informing me that unless I left his office at once he would send for a Policeman and have me removed. I am of the opinion that had Mr. Brown known the mental anxiety I was undergoing, and the physical weakness I was suffering from, he would have had possibly much more consideration for me.
At 1:00 P.M. on the 24th of November I left the office and I felt such extreme exhaustion from excitement and trouble that I felt myself perfectly incompetent to return to office, and from that date until the morning of the 27th I remained at home, Dr. Ayres having visited me on the 26th and ordered me to Hospital where I remained until December 3rd when I was most unexpectedly removed under Warrant or Writ of Execution from the Supreme Court, and forced under most exceptional circumstances in my weak state of health to run backward and forward through the Queen's Road to satisfy a claim which in all honour I had virtually contracted.
The disgrace that I felt, the continued pressure that subsequently followed and was forced like an avalanche upon me, and my personal respect for my appointment as an officer of the Public Works Department...