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Although we understand that kr. and Mrs. Bird may wish to come to this country it seems unlikely that they will do no since the doctor attending Mrs.Bird does not consider it would be wise for her to undertake a long journey. This case was brought the notice of the Baard of Trade by senater #.J.Cooper, Leader of the Opposition in the Australian ŝenate, who is also understood to have taken the matter up with the United Kingdom High Commissioner, Canberra.
5. So far as concerns är. A. Allison and his wife, both are over seventy and like är. and Mrs. Bird went to Australia on release from internment. Mrs.Allisen is an invalid and we understand there is no hope of her recovery. Kr. Allison states that he is in receipt of an allowance of £1 per week from the Australian Government and a military pension of 2/9 per day, the latter allowance presumably from Vaited Kingdom Funds since he served in the Boer war and in China at, we understand, the relief of Peping. From this income he has to pay for assistance in marsing his wife as well as doctors bills, rent and other necessary household expenses. He appears to have appealed to the United Kingdom High Commissioner.
6. Mr. R.#.Ogden was interned in Hong Kong and his wife spent the war years in Australia. He has been invalided from the Chinese Maritime Customs and states that his wife is also an invalid. In connection with this case you may like to know that we have learnt from the Foreign Office that that Department understands that it is, or was, the practice of the Chinese Government to pay retiring members of the Chinese Maritime Customs a lump sum sufficiently large to purchase a reasonable pension. We have, of course, no information to show whether Kr. Ogden has received such a payment and it may be, since he has been invalided out and in the present state of the
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