E
No. 278.
Sir,
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONG KONG,
5th April, 1938.
12
in care
2
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt
of your despatch No.32 of the 31st of January, 1938, regarding the allocation of Government quarters to senior officers under the new scales of salary.
2.
I have given careful consideration to the
question of allocation of individual Government quarters
to particular offices as contemplated in Sir Andrew
5 on 53423/36 Caldecott's despatch No.491 of the 19th of August, 1936,
and have reached the conclusion that it would be impracticable in present circumstances to allot quarters
to all the posts which under the new scales of salary are to carry free quarters.
3.
The primary difficulty in such allotment is that there are at present barely sufficient quarters to provide for all those posts. The list includes twenty- three posts excluding that of the Senior Assistant Colonial Treasurer, which is not being filled at present. At the moment the "senior" Government quarters comprise twenty-two houses and a block of six flats in the Peak district and fourteen houses at Leighton Hill. The latter, owing to their situation, are not generally regarded as suitable for occupation by the most senior
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
W.G.A. ORMSBY-GORE, P.C., M.P.,
&C.
&C.,
&C.,