С СОРУ
No.9.
EN CLOSURE.
211
9710
2 M 93/
Public Works Office.
Hong-Kong, 6th. January, 1898.
Sir,
With reference to my letter dated the 10th. December,1897,in C. S.0.2961/97 and the approacing retire-
ment of Mr. Bowdler, I have the honour to submit the follow-
ing recommendation for the favourable consideration of His
Excellency the Governor.
2. In the minute I refer to above, I reported
that there was no immediate necessity to fill up the Spe-
cial Engineer's place; I wished to throw no obstacle in the
way of his obtaining the privilege leave he applied for„Aud
I further was desirous to become more intimately acquainted
personally with the details of the work in progress, and wit:
the Executive Staff, but I did not contemplate that a work
of this magnitude and importance, likely to lead to other
work of a similar nature,could go on indefinitely, without
the special supervision of a senior officer of this Depart-
ment working under me.
3. As already pointed out and demonstrated by
The Honourable
The Colonial Secretary,
recent