CO129-297 - Governor Sir Blake - 1900 [1-3] — Page 607

COPY.

Enclosure 5.

604

C.0.

11874

RECO

يام

APR 07

Registration and Parcels Branch,

General Post Office,

Hongkong, 7th.December, 1899.

sir,

I beg to submit the following answers to the charges made against me by you: would you kindly forward the same to the Hon. the Colonial Secretary.

I

I left the office, on the day in question, when my Work was finished i.e. after all the registered covers which

arrived by that Mail had been dealt with.

The covers for Coast Ports hád all been entered in

the proper journals.

The only work to be done was the closing of mails,

for the North, to be despatched by the French Parket.

I had no mail to close by that packet and I therefore

left the office considering (and justly so) that my work was

finished: - having been employed exactly six hours and five

minutes in dealing with that mail alone.

II

There was no wilful disobedience of orders on my

part. I simply considered that the parcels in question could

be dealt with quite es well the next morning; - to have dealt

with them on the Evening in question would have kept, the

Parcel Clerk and I working up to 9 p.m. and left very little

for him or I to do on the following day. I may add that the

parcels in question were all dealt with the following morning.

III

The boxes in question were properly closed and

scaled i.e. the tops were not only nailed on; but screwed

down