0405
CONFIDENTIAL.
INTED
FOR
PANTLAN
COLONIAL
A 137
OFFICE
RES
40405 HONGKONG
[ 14 AUG 201
GOVERNMENT HOUSE.
17th June, 1920.
264
I
My Lord,
617450
With reference to paragraphs 3 and 5 of Your Lordship's confidential despatch of the 20th March, 1920, I have the honour to refer for your further consideration certain matters in connection with leave of absence and rent allowances.
2.
You have approved the principle that an officer should be entitled to a total period of ten months' leave on full pay; and, in view of the rights in respect of accumulated half pay leave which officers now in the service Bervice possess, I think that this end can best be secured by per- mitting the accumulation of vacation leave up to a total of five months to be taken in conjunction with five months' leave on commuted pay, or on half pay, or partly on commuted pay and partly on half pay. The existing rule, that an officer who takes any commuted pay leave, may not have more than ten months' leave in all, would stand. I do not think that this system can be regarded as more favourable than that in force in Malaya; but I take the opportunity of calling Your Lordship's attention to the fact that, with the Siberian route closed, Hongkong is a full week further removed from the United Kingdom than is Singapore, so that in order to place the officers of the two services in a position of
HE RIGHT HONOURABLE
&C..
VISCOUNT MILNER, G.C.B.,
&c..
&c.
equality