2.
19
3.
I propose, therefore, subject to your concurrence to cancel General Order 160 and to sub-
stitute the following:
"160. If the officer be granted a shorter
period of leave than that for which he is
eligible, the balance will be reserved
for his future use; provided that if the
officer is proceeding home on retirement
he may not be granted leave in excess of
exclusive of the standard
eight months
voyage".
Encl.No.2
The necessity for retaining the eight months' limit is explained in paragraph 5 of Sir Thomas Southorn's
despatch.
The other point calling for consideration
is the full pay leave to be granted to officers on the permanent establishment domiciled in the Far East. The
grant of such leave is at present governed by General
Order No. 172, of which I attach a copy for convenience
of reference. These rules which reproduce with minor
modifications the rules submitted in the late Sir H.
May's despatch No. 34 of 31st. January, 1913, and approved
in the late Viscount Harcourt's despatch No. 52 of 28th.
February, 1913, appear to me to be unnecessarily generous
in view of the fact that the officers concerned are for
the most part Chinese who are natives of Hong Kong and
the adjacent provinces of China. The question has not been of importance in the past since few applications
for leave were received, and those usually on special
grounds,