Crown Solicitor in which he forwards a list of Mr. Sharp's fees in connection with these cases, which amount to $1,500. Mr. Bowley also submits a statement regarding the extent of his own work.
459 4. I have authorised the payment of Mr. Sharp's fees, and have to recommend that Mr. Bowley be paid a bonus of $3,000 in view of the arduous and exceptional work in which he was engaged for many months and which he has carried to a conclusion highly satisfactory to the Government. This sum represents the aggregate in round figures of the Solicitor's taxed costs as against the Respondents in the 'U' and 'K' and Ho Lap Pun cases, and as these costs are irrecoverable I consider that it is only reasonable that at least that sum should be made good to the Crown Solicitor to whom these costs would if recovered have been paid. The Crown Solicitor is not actually out of pocket in respect of the clerical work. The $1000 mentioned represents the balance of the expenses done in connection with his own clerical work.
I take this opportunity of making special mention of the very valuable services rendered to the Government in all three cases by Mr. Clementi, without whose able assistance it is probable that they could not have been brought to so successful a conclusion. When in my capacity as Colonial Secretary I advised Sir Henry Blake to refuse to grant titles in the 'U' and 'K' and Ho Lap Pun cases, I suggested that Government should avail itself of Mr. Clementi's knowledge of the Chinese law and language to investigate the bona fides of the claimants and the genuineness or otherwise of the deeds upon which their claims were based. This he did with the assistance of Mr. James Scott, Consul-General at Canton, and of Mr. Lau Tsz Peng, an expert in Chinese land law whose services were kindly placed at Mr. Clementi's disposal by the San...