Sir,
Endlosure 1.
HARBOUR DEPARTMENT,
Hong-Kong, 29th August, 1903. 0.
36091
REC Res 8 OCT 03)
395
I have the bonour to address you on the subject of the Sterling Salary Scheme, promulgated last year, and to beg that
I may be permitted to join the Scheme, although my name has been returned as declining to accept it.
+
2. When the Scheme was first published in this Colony, in September last, the impression I received was that the
optional clause only affected existing appointments, and that,
in the event of promotion, it would be obligatory for the Officer concerned to accept the Sterling rate, under the Scheme, with the new appointment. That this impression was erroneous I now recognize: but, at the time, I was so sure of it that I based
all my calculations of the future Departmental Salaries on this
mistaken assumption.
3. Acting on this misapprehension, I at once accepted the Scheme, with the proviso that I might be allowed to draw
my salary in London. My ides in this was that, as the provisions
as to the rate of exchange at which the new Sterling Salaries
were to be paid had been omitted from the Scheme, I wished to
ensure to myself at least the current rate.
4. It now appears that my proviso was one that could not
be accepted, but of this I was not informed until after the
expiration of the period of six montbs allowed for accepting or declining to accept the Scheme, and after my name had been
returned as declining to accept. I was certainly under the
impression that my acceptance, with the proviso, bad been approved.
To
The Right Honourable
The Secretary of State for the Colonies.
5.