Whitehall Gardens,
London, S.W.
14th June, 1907.
283
I have the honour to transmit for the consideration of the Colonial Government a copy of a letter which we have received from the Consulting Engineers for the construction of the British Section of the Kowloon-Canton Railway,
in which they recommend the grant of house allowance to the Resident Engineer and two of the officers of his staff. I also attach for convenience of reference copies of the paragraphs of Mr. Eves' letter of the 10th of January to which the Consulting Engineers refer.
2. It is probably the common practice to give free quarters to officers employed on railway construction in the tropics, although we cannot say that the practice is an invariable one. In the case of one other Colonial railway at least for which we engaged the construction staff, we did not provide for free quarters in the agreements, though it is possible that in that case free quarters were nevertheless allowed. Mr. Eves and the two other officers in question having signed and accepted agreements containing no promise of free quarters, it cannot be held that they are entitled to them. It would appear from Mr. Eves' letter, however that the rest of the staff are provided with quarters, and that under the existing conditions at Kowloon they have to pay for their houses a much higher rent than they might reasonably have expected to pay when they accepted their appointments; and on both these grounds their application for a house allowance would seem to merit consideration.
3. We must leave the matter for the decision of
The Honourable
The Colonial Secretary,
Hongkong.