}
No.
15
Hongkong.
My Lord,
CO
58
4760
Rec 17 FEB 10,
Government House,
Hongkong, 12th.January,1910.
I have the honour to inform Your
Lordship that at the last meeting of Executive Council on
the 5th. instant it was the unanimous opinion of the
Members that it was unnecessary that all cases of the grant
of half-pay leave should be referred to the Council for
advice and that I concur in this view.
2.
I am unable to find any instruct-
-ion or Colonial Office Regulation requiring the opinion
of Executive Council to be taken on applications for half-
-pay leave, but as the certificate in Appendix 3 to the
Colonial Office Regulations recites that "the Governor,
with the advice and consent of the Executive Council of
Government,
has granted" the leave, all applications of
the kind have hitherto been referred to the Council as a
matter of routine. I should, of course, always refer to
the Council any case in which the grant of leave to an
Officer
E RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL OF CREWE,
&C. 1
&C -