CO129-409 - Governor Sir May - 1914 [1-3] — Page 433

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excluded from the recommendation for temporary

house allowance made in a despatch to the

Secretary of State dated the 13th June, 1913".

5. The Appropriation Ordinance for 1914 includes a sum of $432,550 for the Public Works Department charged upon the Revenue of the Colony.

The published botimates for 1914 (on pages 86/87) show that this cum includes temporary house allowances for all the Overscore rund Land Bailiffs except two who have free quarters. 6. We respectfully submit that under the vote of the Legis-

lative Council on the 23rd October last, and under the Appro- priation Ordinance for 1914 we are legally entitled to a Tom-

porary House Allowance from the 1st January 1913 to the 31st

December 1914, except during absonce on lonvo,

7. Apparently the only reason for excluding us is that we

have houses of our own.

According to Hongkong General Order 22 (1911 edition) an

officer is permitted to own a house for his own occupation with

a garden and ground attached thereto.

We respectfully submit that the fact that we own our

houses is no reason for refusing us a house allowance,

8. Of recent years it has been impossible to obtain suitable

accommodation for ourselves and (in the case of married men)

for our families, and before the proposal for free quarters was

put forward each of us decided to embark on the same what

hazardous enterprise of buying land and building a house as the

only possible solution of the difficulty.

We therefore with the knowledge and approval of our Superior officers applied fur and bought lots of Crown Land and

have built substantial houses thereon. To this object we have

devoted all our savings and all our spare time, and have

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