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N°
380.
RE
€111
RE. 4 GOVERNME
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONGKONG. 9th December, 1919.
301
no
55700
امنت
you 494
My Lord,
I have the honour to acknowledge the
receipt of Your Lordship's Despatch No. 476 of the 17th October regarding the seniority of the Cadets appointed under the
temporary regulations now in force.
2.
The first appointments to the Cadet
Service of the Colony since the beginning of the war are those
' of Mr. Forrest and Mr. Fraser, reported in Your Lordship's
Despatches No. 403 and 451 of the 15th August and 29th Septem- -ber. Hr. Forrest's is the prior appointment, and he is three years older than Kr. Fraser, so that there will be no difficul- -ty on the score of seniority in their case.
3.
So far as can be foreseen, no new Cadet will be required in 1920, and therefore it is not very probable that questions of seniority will hereafter arise; but the two officers who have recently been appointed will be warned in the sense of paragraph 4 of your Despatch.
4.
and
At the same time, I must say that I fore- -see great difficulty and grave dissatisfaction if in the future officers were promoted over those who joined the service before them, except in cases of outstanding merit, the possibility of such contingencies as are contemplated in your Despatch appears to me to afford an additional argument in favour of the recommendations which I am putting forward in
ano ther
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
VISCOUNT MILNER, G.C.B.,
&c..
&c.