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on the
application was based solely on the fact that Japan had a silver currency. I therefore ask that my pension may for the future be paid to me at the rate of three shillings and nine pence, which is the lowest rate at which all the European civil servants
who have retired from the Hong Kong service receive their pensions.
The question has become, I may say, a vital one for me, as since I came to reside here the prices of all the necessaries of life have so risen in value (in some cases more than sixty per cent) that my pension is now quite insufficient for me to live and I have lately been obliged, though with the greatest reluctance, to draw on a small provision which I had made for my wife in case of my predecease. As import duties, varying from seventeen to thirty percent on cost prices in Europe, will be levied on all European comforts or necessaries imported into Japan after the first of January next, my present expenses of living are likely to be still further seriously increased.
I venture therefore very strongly and respectfully to urge my present application to your kind and favorable
consideration.
I have the honor to be
Sir,