Enclosure in No168 of 29 April 1902,
REC
C. O.
21801
Harbour Department,
Hongkong, 4 April, 1902.
615
Sir,
We the undersigned, the first, second and third Clerks in the Department, most respectfully crave leave to lay before you the following statements regarding our positions in the Service of the Colony, in the hope that you may be pleased to submit them for the favourable consideration of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government, supported by your kind recommendations.
2.
We do so with much diffidence, well knowing that the Government has of late been frequently troubled with solicitations of a similar nature. But existing circumstances leave us no alternative but to make an earnest appeal for some relief.
THE HONOURABLE,
3.
It seems needless for us to point out that all commodities of life have considerably advanced in cost; house-rent has increased enormously and the tendency is far towards yet higher figures; servants' wages have also risen: "in a word, the purchasing power of a dollar to-day is less than half of what it was ten years ago. We are thus, in common with others, placed in the sorry plight of having either to gradually drift into debt - a state of which we entertain the utmost dread - or be forced to deprive ourselves of the necessary comforts of life, with the consequent probable result of physical incapacity for properly discharging our duties.
R.MURRAY RUMSBY, R.N.,
HARBOUR MASTER,