CO129-503-6 Vacancies for schoolmasters- difficulty in filling posts- terms of appointment and service 17-3-1927 - 15-11-1927 — Page 18

30c73/27 Hong Kong.

Major targe

Captain Newbolt.

18

Поракий

Mr. Clutterbuck handed this draft despatch

to Hong Kong to me as he was unable to find time to deal with it. I regret that I too have been unable to deal with it sooner.

The delay has been partly due to certain qualms which I have felt at writing to Hong Kong on the general lines of the first half of the

draft. I agree that if the Governor is to be given a reasoned account of our failure to recruit schoolmasters, it is necessary to say something on these lines; On the other hand, so far as I am aware, there is no general feeling in Hong Kong itself of excessive isolation, of excessive remoteness from this country, or

though of excessively long tours of service, there

are some indications that ideas of this sort

are germinating. Briefly, my point is that it is not desirable in a despatch which will be seen by a fairly large number of officers in

Hong Kong to say anything which will lead the Hong Kong Service to regard itself as a service

of martyrs in these respects.

I have accordingly tried hard to find

a way out of the dilemma, but I must admit that

I have not succeeded.

Perhaps my modification of paragraph

8 (3) will be of some assistance, and it does

not really weaken the despatch, because the

comparative length of tour is referred to in

paragraph 8 (5), and the question of salary is

dealt with in paragraph 9.

H