to the notice of the Secretary of State for the Colonies before, is owing I imagine, to the circumstance
that they were performed some ten years period of some time while I was employed under the Foreign Office, but it can be shown that this was not as Foreign Office Servant, but because I was thought to be the most fitting person to perform those important functions, being conversant with Colonial duties from my early Services at the Mauritius, And from the circumstance of having obtained, by residence among them, a knowledge of the habits and customs of the Chinese, as well as from the fact that I was stationed near the spot at the time they were regained.
Thus when intrusted with the Government of Hongkong, it was owing to my knowledge of Colonial affairs and of Chinese habits and customs that no Military ... was needed.