HENRY JAMES LETHBRIDGE
Registrar General's Department at that date was run by the Re- gistrar-General and four clerks. Nevertheless, within five years of his return from Canton Lockhart had become the head of a key department, the Registrar-General's Department (renamed in 1911 more appropriately as the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs).
Dr. Ho Kai (later Sir Kai Ho Kai) in a farewell speech in 1902 on the eve of Lockhart's departure for Weihaiwei remarked that 'in 1882 Mr. Lockhart arrived here to find Hong Kong in a depressed condition, owing to the collapse of the great land specula- tion that occurred during the year previous; and he found also an embittered feeling between two important sections of the com- munity. Young as Mr. Lockhart was then, and although occupying a minor position in the Government, he at once interested himself in the welfare of the Colony, and endeavoured to promote a better understanding between the Europeans and the Chinese. The lead- ing Chinese citizens, who had hitherto been more or less apathetic towards public affairs, came forward in comparatively large num bers and took a keener and more active interest in civic welfare. They gave the Government their full co-operation and support and gave largely to the various local charitable institutions and took a more active part in their management'." Ho Kai was a very close friend of Lockhart's and, needless to say, farewell speeches are normally eulogistic-they are the expression of an understood social ritual in which white must predominate over black -but in truth Ho Kai had not exaggerated the part played by Lockhart over a number of years in drawing prominent Chinese into the orbit of Government.
There were several reasons for this: Lockhart always admired the Chinese; as an administrator he saw obvious advantages in securing Chinese support for government policies; he knew that Hong Kong was changing and that the style of governing had to change if only because a Chinese business and commercial elite had emerged, and because a segment of the population could be defined as permanently resident in the Colony; he knew, too, that the future prosperity of the Colony would come to depend more and more on a Chinese bourgeoisie. But the problems faced by Lockhart by the colonial government were not unique to Hong Kong of course; they were typical of some other colonial territories, notably in Africa,10 Hence, with the collaboration of a number of promin
58
HENRY JAMES LETHBRIDGE
Registrar General's Department at that date was run by the Re- gistrar-General and four clerks. Nevertheless, within five years of his return from Canton Lockhart had become the head of a key department, the Registrar-General's Department (renamed in 1911 more appropriately as the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs).
Dr. Ho Kai (later Sir Kai Ho Kai) in a farewell speech in 1902 on the eve of Lockhart's departure for Weihaiwei remarked that 'in 1882 Mr. Lockhart arrived here to find Hong Kong in a depressed condition, owing to the collapse of the great land specula- tion that occurred during the year previous; and he found also an embittered feeling between two important sections of the com- munity. Young as Mr. Lockhart was then, and although occupying a minor position in the Government, he at once interested himself in the welfare of the Colony, and endeavoured to promote a better understanding between the Europeans and the Chinese. The lead- ing Chinese citizens, who had hitherto been more or less apathetic towards public affairs, came forward in comparatively large num bers and took a keener and more active interest in civic welfare. They gave the Government their full co-operation and support and gave largely to the various local charitable institutions and took a more active part in their management'." Ho Kai was a very close friend of Lockhart's and, needless to say, farewell speeches are normally eulogistic-they are the expression of an understood social ritual in which white must predominate over black -but in truth Ho Kai had not exaggerated the part played by Lockhart over a number of years in drawing prominent Chinese into the orbit of Government.
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There were several reasons for this: Lockhart always admired the Chinese; as an administrator he saw obvious advantages in securing Chinese support for government policies; he knew that Hong Kong was changing and that the style of governing had to change if only because a Chinese business and commercial elite had emerged, and because a segment of the population could be defined as permanently resident in the Colony; he knew, too, that the future prosperity of the Colony would come to depend more and more on a Chinese bourgeoisie. But the problems faced by Lockhart by the colonial government were not unique to Hong Kong of course; they were typical of some other colonial territories, notably in Africa,10 Hence, with the collaboration of a number of promin
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