CONFIDENTIAL.
Trong làng.
1898/1 1898
11524
Government House.
29th, December, 1911.
Joc 30471/11
do.do.
sir,
On receipt of your telegram of September
25th. I decided after discussing the matter with the late
ir Barnes to write to Sir Francis Piggott (who was in
/
Japan on leave) and inform him that, in view of his retire- ment at the end of April next I should be glad to know
whether he desired to avail himself of three months' full
pay leave prior to that date, in order that I might make
necessary arrangements. I took this course because I was
uncertain whether Sir Francis intended to retire of his
ow motion, and if that should have been the case it would
have enabled me to avoid the very disagreeable duty of
compulsorily retiring him.
2.
In reply he informed me that he had no
intention of retiring at that time. Shortly after the
receipt of this letter I convened a meeting of the Executive Council, and informed them that you had "decided that it was necessary to call upon the Chief Justice to rettre
from the service in order to facilitate the creation of
a satisfactory Appeal Court" (despatch of September 29th. which had just arrived). Many if not all of the Council were aware that there were (as I told them) other cogent
reasons for his retirement, but it seemed unnecessary to
drag these matters in for the Council at once and unan-
imously
E RIGHT HONOURABLE. LEWIS V. HARCOURT.
K.P.
&C.,
&c.,
&C..)
SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES.