CO129-381 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1911 [11-12] — Page 540

COPY.

Enclosure #. I

590

Chambers,

Supreme Court, Hongkong,

1st. December, 1911.

Sir,

While I was in Japan on leave I received a

private letter dated 27th. September from Your Excellency asking me

whether "in view of my retirement at the end of April next", I desired

to take three months leave prior to that date, as the leave of

officers for next year was being arranged. I replied that the request

astonished me as I had not expressed any intention to retire at that

date. I also intimated to Your Excellency that I had received no

notice from the Executive Council of compulsory retirement under

No. 1 of 1910, and that I knew of no reason which could induce the

Council to act under that Ordinance. Further as it might facilitate

the making of your arrangements for leave to know what my plans were

for the future, I said that so far as I could see at present I hoped

to retire in the early summer of 1913.

2.

Later and before returning from leave I received an official letter dated 30th. October from Your Excellency informing

me that the Secretary of State had decided that the new Appeal Court

should be established without delay, to be constituted by the addition

of one of the Shanghai Judges: that as the arrangement could not come into force until after my retirement "owing to a number of consideratie -ons, including the fact that the consent of the Foreign Office to

the constitution of the new Court is conditional "on my prior retire-

-ment, Mr. Harcourt had informed Your Excellency that it will be necessary for me to retire when I reach the age of 60: that in accordance with the provisions of No. 1 of 1910 Your Excellency had

*therefore* to inform me "that the Governor in Council requires" my

retirement on or before April 30th. next. Your Excellency added that I should be granted three months leave of absence prior to retirement

if I wished "take advantage of this concession".

see desp. para 3.

I do not fully appreciate the use of the word

"Concession",

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