CO129-419 - Individuals - 1914 — Page 448

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only mention them to emphasise the point of the mistake which has

arisen in treating my application as one for an increase to the

salary of the post of "Superintendent of Accounts, Correspondence

and Stores", instead of recognising it as merely a reminder that

I have fulfilled the conditions set down in 1911 as necessary of

fulfilment to entitle me to draw the second and last instalment

of the maximum pensionable personal allowance of £120 per annum.

The foregoing minute of the Governor leaves no room for doubt

that he was dealing with what he considered a suitable rate of pay

for the post of "Superintendent of Accounts, Correspondence and

Stores" as compared with other posts, and that he wholly omitted

bused to take into account the fact that my present case was on different

grounds and had been described by the Hongkong Government in 1911

as "a special case meriting special treatment", and that the Seore-

tary of State also treated it as one with "special circumstances"

and had dealt favourably with it solely for that reason.

None of the points which made for such "special circumstances"

justifying "special treatment", as acknowledged by the Hongkong

Government and the Secretary of State in 1911, are taken into ace

count, or referred to in any way, in the Governor's minute. In

fact, nothing could be more convincing that he had limited his

consideration and confined his report to the duties and pay of

the post than his own written words: "I regard Mr Wood's emoluments

as more than sufficient for the DUTIES of the POST he holds."

Such a statement is only a reiteration of the pronouncement of

the Hongkong Government and the Secretary of State in their de-

spatches in 1911, but has no application to the ground of "special

circumstances" on which my present application is based; "special

circumstances" which were admitted in 1911, and solely on account

of which it was decided to bestow a maximum pensionable personal

allowance of £120 per annum in the absence of equivalent remunerat-

ive promotion.

Left, as I have been, in the same post without such promotion,

the circumstances of my case, as was only to be expected, remain