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"HEAD QUARTER HOUSE:
"27th November, 1888.
"MY DEAR GOVERNOR,-I have rewritten my letter, and inclose a copy of it. In almost all cases I have adopted your suggestions.
"As I am writing to support you, and at your request, I do not wish to say anything that you cannot agree with: otherwise, I see no reason to alter it on my own account. But I still think it necessary to mention that you have asked me to write it. As a soldier I am used to accept decisions without question, and aftor Lord Derby's letter I should not have thought of writing, except to support you in your reply to it. This must appear on the face of my letter.
"Believe me, very truly yours,
"H.E. Sir George Bowen, G.C.M.G., &c.
"J. N. SARGENT.
"(Sent 9 A.M.)"
(e) My letter of the 9th December, 1884, to Sir George Bowen, in which I advised him not to apply for leave to go home, and said, "Stick to your post while there is any chance of our being brought into the war between France and China. If you ask to go home now, you may injure your family and yourself. I am one of the last to intentionally injure any man except in self-defence and fair fight, and being told that you have taken my letter so much to heart I hereby withdraw it, provided you return it to me intact and upon the distinct understanding that if you or any of your friends, either here or elsewhere, ever refer to it, or to any part of it, I will reproduce it."
It should be explained that my reason for using the words "any part of" my letter was because of the practical
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proof Sir George Bowen had given of his treachery, and because the word "part" had been suggested by the Colonial Secretary when he was trying to persuade me to withdraw only a part of my letter after I had positively refused to withdraw a word of what I had written.
(d) From the public address which was delivered at the "ovation" I received on my departure from Hong Kong, as follows:--
"Of your services rendered to the Government of the Colony in the Executive Council we have no means of knowing, they have been rendered so quietly and unobtru- sively; but we do know that you have, at all times and in all ways, strengthened the hands of the Civil authorities by your counsel, by your example, and by your unfailing support."
Such was His Royal Highness's high opinion of the way in which I did my duty as a soldier, that he selected me for the "Reward for Distinguished and Meritorious Services;" this distinguished mark of high approval was farther emphasised by the fact that it was entirely unsonght by me. I never asked to have my name placed upon the long list of Generals and Colonels who had applied for this honour. What I did for the Reward was summarised at the Horse Guards from the records there for submission by His Royal Highness to Her Majesty the Queen, and published in the Army Estimates for 1875 and 1876 in the following words :--
COLONEL JOHN NEPTUNE SARGENT, C.B.
"Served in the Danubian Campaign of 1854 and in the Crimes; present at the Battle of Alma (wounded and mentioned for determined bravery); repulse of the sortie on October 20;' the Battle of Inkerman, where he commanded his regiment, aud brought it out of action, using a rifle himself with remarkable effect, and was wounded at the fall of Sebastopol (mentioned in
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