:
N° 174.
27449
REE 15 JUN 15.
63
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONGKONG, 6th. May, 1915.
sir.
802
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt
of your Despatch No. 36 of the 12th. of February regarding the pay
of the Governor's Private Secretary when the appointment is held
by an Officer already in the Public Service.
Your instructions as to the allocation of such
pay have been noted, but I have to report that in view of the fact that in Mr. Hallifax's case any time during routine office hours spent on Private Secretary's work (e.g. in the cyphering or decy- -phering of urgent telegrams) was more than made up by working in office far beyond the usual official limit, and as the work generally in the Private Secretary's Office involved much work at night I do not consider that any diminution from the full pay of the Private Secretary ought to be made, and I would ask your
sanction not to make it.
The same remarks apply to the work of Mr. G. R. Sayer. If he is detained with me for any portion of the usual office hours he has to make the time up by working overtime and as the bulk of his Private Secretary's work has to be done in the early morning, evenings or at night he has, as I can testify, practically no time to himself. In these circumstances I propose to allow him the full salary of the Private Secretary and to continue
to
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
LEWIS HARCOURT, M.P.,
&c.,
&C...