COPY.
Enclosure 1.
(2).
Statement of A. P. Guterres in answer to the Colonial Secretary's letter of 27th November, 1906.
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In reply to the charges contained in the letter above referred to, I have to state as follows:-
1. I have been in the Harbour Department since 1889 and from the outset have attended to the payment off of crews. I estimate that I have paid off on an average five or six crews a month since first I entered the Department.
2. In answer to charge A. I did not on the 31st May, 1902, or on any other date deduct $1,280 from the pay of the firemen of the S.S. "Alcinous" or any sum at all, nor did I receive a commission of $85 for any services rendered or any commission at all, nor did I render or do I at any time render any services for which a commission would be payable, nor have I ever charged any commission.
3. In answer to charge E. On the 10th November, 1908, after distributing all the accounts of wages to the crew to their satisfaction, I paid them off with the exception of the Captain's boy, Cheung Foo, who did not turn up when his name was called. The same afternoon, when I was leaving the Office, a Chinaman representing himself to be Cheung Foo presented the unpaid account of wages to me and demanded payment. As I did not know the man and he could not identify himself, I told him to come back on Monday and bring with him the Boarding Master who shipped him to identify him, when I would pay him. He never subsequently came. The money is now and has all the time been in the hands of the shroff of the Harbour Department.
4. In answer to charge C. I have never deducted odd cents from the wages of any crews on paying off. It sometimes happens that there is a shortage of copper coin when a crew is paid off. In such cases, if one man has to receive 22 cents and another 29 cents, I have been in the habit of paying a 5-cent piece to the man entitled to 23 cents and requesting him to give the 2 cents to the other man. The coin is supplied by the Masters of the ship.
5. In answer to charge D. I have never habitually or otherwise substituted silver dollars short in value and/or subsidiary silver coins for the bank notes or coin received by me from the masters of ships for the purpose of paying off the crews of the ships, nor have I ever made any profit by so doing. Masters of ships invariably bring their own subsidiary coins procured either from their agents or compradores for payment to their crew.