CO129-484 - Governor Sir Stubbs - 1924 [1-7] — Page 305

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295

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16 JUN

N°207-

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

HONGKONG. 8th May, 1924.

closures 1/7

Enclosure 8.

sir,

I have the honour to enclose copies of

correspondence between the Postmaster General, Hongkong, and British Consular Authorities in China with regard to the payment of gratuities to former employees on the staff of the British Postal Agencies in China. I also enclose

a copy of a minute by the Postmaster General recommending the early payment of the amounts indicated in the lists

attached.

2.

This question has already given rise to considerable correspondence between the Postmaster General and the Secretary to the Post Office. The last Postmaster General, Mr. S. B. C. Ross, was strongly of opinion that the amounts of the gratuities which the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury were prepared to sanction were entirely inadequate, and that to offer these amounts would tend to

lower British prestige in the places concerned, more particularly in view of the more generous treatment accorded to the former employees of the Postal Agencies of other nations. Mr. Ross proposed to discuss the matter

with the Post Office Authorities when he went on leave in the summer of 1923, and took with him various documents for this purpose; but his illness and death prevented him from

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

carrying

J. H. THOMAS, M.P.,

&C..

&C.