4
5.
or all of the prospective recruits who had
been inspected by Mr. Wolfe were relatives
of officers or ex-officers of the Hong Kong
service as specified in the 0.A.G.'s telegram
(4).
He promised to look the matter up and
I
has sent me the minute which have now attached.
From this it appears that four of the prospective
recruits fall within the category specified and
the O.A.G.'s telegram is therefore sufficient
authority for us to instruct the Cr. Agts. to
proceed with the selection of these four. It
seems to me, however, that the restriction of
these vacancies to relatives of officers and
ex officers of the Hong Service, without
taking into consideration the merits of any
other candidates in this country, is open to
objection, and would be rather difficult to
defend, though it would be quite understandable,
other things being equal, for Hong Kong to
wish to give a preference to the sons (and
even other near relatives) of officers who
have done good service in the Colony.
I suggest that the difficulty of
justifying the action proposed might be
mentioned to Sir William Peel before the
Crown Agts are authorised to proceed to
select the four men who have, or who have had,
relatives in the service.
Sir William Peel
is being asked to call to discuss Crown
leases (see 92665/32) and possibly this
might be mentioned to him at the same time.
HuJmeron
12.7.32