+
No
121.
351
CO
27280
BN
5 N 201
GOVERNMENT HOUSE.
HONGKONG. 10th April, 1920.
closure 1.
My Lord,
I have the honour to report that on the 23rd
January last the Senior Shroff in the Stamp Office at the
Treasury absconded, and that a subsequent examination of his
accounts showed a deficit in revenue stamps of the face value
of $19,963,80.
2.
The immediate cause of the man's disappearance was
the fact that at the close of office hours on the previous after-
noon Mr. R. 0. Hutchison, the Acting Treasurer, attempted to
check the stamps but was unable to do so because the shroff had
already left the office. Mr. Hutchison had at the time no ground
for suspicion, and the shroff received sufficient warning to
enable him to escape. He returned his keys through the post.
3.
I enclose a copy of a minute by Mr. Hutchison on
the working of the Stamp Office. The revenue stemps, which vary
in face value between 5 cents and £200, cannot in the ordinary
course be sold in the market as they are valueless unless
embossed in the Stamp Office; and the shroff accordingly, in
spite of the large amount of stamps in his custody, was secured
in the Government Guarantee Fund in the sum of £3,000 only, to
cover the sum in cash, ordinarily between 81,500 and £2,500,
which he would collect in any one day.
4.
·
Mr. C. McI. Messer, who holds the permanent
appointment of Treasurer, left the Colony on long leave to
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
VISCOUNT MILNER, G.C.B.,
&c.,
&c.,
&c.