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6. This belated financial resolution came to us
It is not what we claimed.
as a great surprise.
It is not,
in our view, what the Secretary of State decided, and promised in
the Colonial Office letter of the 22nd March.
It is not even
what the Hong Kong Government appeared to promise in the Crown
Agents' letter of the 26th May, for the position set up by the new
financial resolution is not a continuance of any previous practice
whatever.
7. The new financial resolution is ambiguously
worded, but apparently, in spite of the phrase "has deemed it equitable", it contemplates some future exercise of discretion
by the Governor in Council as to whether any particular pension constitutes a special case. If it had meant "except in certain
special cases where the Governor in Council has already sanctioned payment at 3/-" it would presumably have included a description of
the class or would have had annexed to it a schedule enumerating
the officers concerned.
It is noticeable that the Colonial
Secretary has made no attempt to deal with Mr.Hallifax's inquiry about the word "eligible", so presumably the word was chosen
deliberately.