CO129-223 - Governor Sir Bowen Acting Governor Marsh & Others - 1885 [11-12] — Page 126

Duplicate.

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the.

SIR,

HONGKONG, 19th December, 1885.

I beg most respectfully to recall the attention of II. E. THE GOVERNOR to my letter of 13th June last with correspondence attached,

and

to request His EXCELLENCY may be pleased to forward to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies, this my second appeal on the subject of my Military

Pension.

2. It is now six months since I appealed on the subject through the Colonial Office, and my London Agents inform me that when they apply for my pension, payment is refused with the observation, that the subject is "still under

"consideration."

3. This, however incovenient for me, gives me, at least, the opportunity of

again requesting the Colonial Office to use their influence to have this matter adjusted in favour of one who is now their servant.

4. In my former letter, I referred to the excessive hardship to myself. This is now still harder: for at the present rate of exchange, my pay in Hongkong

only amounts to £581;-but for earning this I am retrenched by the British Government £300 a year. I am therefore serving here at the present moment for £281 per annum, about the same emolument that is received by

the chief warder under me, and less than is paid to almost every head clerk of a

Government Department in this Island.

5. I would now venture to ask the question, whether the Colonial Office

would not deem it right, in their own interest and that of the Colonies, as well as of mine, to bring some pressure to bear on the War Office and Treasury to have this question decided in my favour?

6. I think it cannot be denied that retired officers of the army are likely to

become useful servants at home and in the Colonies, at all events in the De- partments of Police and Prisons. Their pensions are small; and when compulsorily retired, while still capable of good service they naturally look forward to such employments, for which, from their training, they are specially qualified. Is it not a cruel decision, both for the Colonial Office and for every Colony in the

hotpath Empire, that such a heavy tax, amounting in my case to over 51 per cent of my ashe retired income, should be levied for the benefit of the War Office,--and practically at 7.

the cost of the Colonial tax-payer-on a retired officer who accepts a Colonial the Amey Serified

appointment? Is not this practically saying to us retired officers “go away, "live in idleness, enter into the service of a foreign government or into business, 'go abroad, spend your pension in America, France, Germany, Italy, wherever

THE HONOURABLE

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY,

HONGKONG.