i
I
Gn
233
443
In my view, therefore, the position is that
the Government has decided that a pension which would be
payable in dollars if the recipient were in Hongkong is to be paid at 38.8d. or 3a. as the case may be if the recipient lives in a gold standard country, that the Government was
within its rights in taking this decision and that pensions have been granted on the condition that this is to be the
practice. It is true, as Your Lordship observes, that if
the pensioner chose to live in Hongkong he would draw the full number of dollars at which the pension is computed, but
I do not see that it follows that he is entitled to draw it
in Hongkong unless he lives there. It is the rule of the
service that pensioners living in Europe should draw their pensions through the Crown Agents for the Colonies and, as I
have already said, I do not agree that the element of contract
enters into the matter.
4.
I will not, however, insist on this view if
Your Lordship considers that a concession should be made and I am willing to agree that dollar pensioners should be allow-
ed to make arrangements to draw their pensions locally with-
out regard to the place of their residence, if they so desire. I submit, however, that there is no ground for allow.
ing such officers to take advantage of whatever system may
from time to time be most profitable to them and that they must make their choice once for all, and that the officer who elects to be paid in dollars has no longer any claim to be paid in sterling at any future date. It is not within reason that the Government should be called upon to renew a
concession which has been repudiated.
5.
With regard to the final paragraph of my telegram of the 25th June, I do not consider it to be desir- able that European officers should receive any inducement to remain in the Colony after their retirement; but in one or two cases widows have found it necessary to stay on in