CO129-293 - Governor Sir Blake - 1899 [8-9] — Page 386

COPY.

Sir,

Enclosure 1.

383

27205

SUT 9

General Post Office,

HongKong, 14th. August, 1899.

I desire to ask for authority, on the days of the

arrivals of British and French Contract packets from Europe,

to furnish a meal to the clerks in this Department..

2. If sanction is given $500 should be added to the

PE

estimates and, I submit, placed under that head Meals to clerks.

3. The arrivals of these packets mean 8 to 12 hours

work on the stretch with, in the General office, a not incon-

siderable amount of actual physical exertion.

and

4. The bulk of the clerks lige at long distances have

A

to get leave to go home to eat tiffin or dinner as the case

may be. It means a serious loss of time: an hour or an hour and

a half away, and a long walk in the sun or rain,is not conducive

to renewed energy.

40

5. Men on 20 to $60 a month have not servants to bring

them their food- relations might do so, probably pride precludes

The Honourable

The Colonial Secretary.

&c.

860.

&C.

that,