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referred to was written deliberately because I did not consider it
necessary to enter into an explanation of the circumstances under
which some of my six children had not travelled with my wife but
were to travel with me. It will be understood that the remaining
"dependants" who were to stay behind in Hong Kong were doing so
because she had returned. In that paragraph I was not dealing
with passages, but was asking that my dependants who were remaining
behind should be permitted to draw my rent allowance.
already
I applied for a passage for myself only as I had/received
the Government allowance on account of my children and intended to
book their passages myself as soon as I received notice that my own
passage had been booked by the Government. It was not until about the 19th January (three days before the date of my departure) that
I was informed that the passage had been booked, and at the same time I was given my return ticket. My youngest child ( born in September) had been taken seriously ill three or four days earlier,
and when I informed my wife that I had received my passage ticket
and would book passages next day for our eldest daughter and the
two children, age 10 and 8, she absolutely refused to allow our daughter to accompany me to India, as she said she needed her help after her school hours and for part of the night in attending to our sick child. Up to the last moment I hoped that the child would
recover sufficiently to allow of my eldest daughter accompanying me, but the child's condition grew worse and I was obliged to sail alone on the 22nd January (Sunday). My two young children could not
travel without my eldest daughter. On the day after my departure (23rd January) my child was taken into the French Hospital, where he remained for some 10 or 12 days. He never properly recovered and on the 1st March he died at the French Hospital to which he had
been readmitted about two weeks earlier.
It will be seen that it was out of the question for me to arrange for a refund of the Government allowance towards the children's passages at the last moment on the date of my sailing, so I decided to leave the whole matter for adjustment on my return, which would