156
Enclosure b
ADDRESS FROM THE CIVIL SERVICE TO GOVERNOR SIR G. F. BOWEN, G.C.M.G.; WITH HIS EXCELLENCY'S REPLY.
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,
(1)
RECO
C. O.
1409
KEUP 26 JAN 06,
1. We, the Members of the Hongkong Civil Service, desire to address you on
the eve of your departure from the Colony.
2. We wish to give expression to our grateful sense of the unvarying and unfailing courtesy and consideration which have marked your relations with every branch of the Service throughout the term of your administration.
3. We recognise with great pleasure that it has always been Your Excellency's endeavour to smooth away difficulties, and to promote a spirit of harmony among the various Departments.
4. In bidding Your Excellency Farewell, we sincerely trust that you may long be spared to enjoy the leisure which you have so well earned, and that the large experience which you have acquired in the administration of Colonial affairs during five successive Governments may, for many years to come, be available in the Service of the State.
5. In conclusion, we beg to offer Your Excellency our best wishes for the health and prosperity of yourself and of
your family.
HONGKONG, 18th December, 1885.
(Here follow the Signatures.)
GENTLEMEN,
(2.)
REPLY.
I thank you sincerely for this Address. I am glad to take this opportunity of repeating my testimony to the ability, experience, and public spirit of the Heads of Departments who form the Executive Council; and to the fidelity and diligence with which the Members of the Civil Service generally perform their important duties.
The Civil Service of this Colony comprises gentlemen of many races and creeds, Europeans and Asiatics. But I have found all to be animated by feelings of loyalty to our common Sovereign, the Queen, and by a desire to use their utmost endeavours to co-operate harmoniously with Her Majesty's Representative in the administration of the Colony.
I cordially reciprocate your good wishes for my family and myself, and bid you one and all a hearty Farewell.
G. F. BOWEN.