O O P Y.-
Sir,
Enclosure
General Post Offide
C. O.
14225
APR C
Hongkong, 14th. March, 1901.
422
I have the honour most respectfully to
bring to Your Excellency's notice certain facts which I feel sure when stated will serve as an excuse for my troubling you.
As your Excellency is aware I was trans- ferred from the West Indies, and had then no knowledge of the local condition obtaining in Hongkong nor in fact did I have time to make any enquiry. I found on my arrival here that the salary of $2,400 per annum was insufficient for me to live as I had been accustomed to or to maintain the position that I held. It was on ay representation increased by $300, but as a matter of fact even with this increase, for which I was most grateful, ay salary as Assistant Postmaster-General does not compare favourably with the salaries of other Officials, who do not occupy equal rank with
and certainly not equal duties or hours of service.
I however was content to await the re-
*0#
turn of Captain Hastings, the Postmaster-General, when I intended to apply to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies to be transferred to another Colony, in which the cir- cumstances affecting my promotion in the Hongkong Service adverse- ly, did not apply.
Bia Excellency
Owing however to the now monthly increase in the cost of the different articles of food, (in some instances nearly 100
per cent over the prices when I first arrived), and also to the fact that from the 1st. May next my house rent would be increased by almost double viz:- from $44.90 per month to $70 plus taxes per month as the notice attached which I received from my Landlord will prove, I am compelled to appeal to Your Excel- lency, and ask most respectfully that an amount in the shape of House Allowance may be granted to me at the present time, and until such time as the Government are able to provide me with a house.
I would however also take this opportuni-
ty to most earnestly ask that my position in the Hongkong Civil Service be laid before the Secretary of State, and would beg
Sir Henry A. Blake, G.C.X.G.,
leave
Governor,
Hongkong.
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