Enclosure 3.
275
HONG KONG,
To The Right Honourable JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN,
25th JULY, 1898,
H. M's Secretary of State for the Colonies.
sir,
0.0.
19337
EC.
VEG 138
I respectfully beg to address you in the interest of the
"Public School' in Hong Kong, known as the "Diocesan School and
Orphanage of whose Committee of Management I am Chairman
·
This School isa boarding and day School for boys, founded
29 years ago; the Scholars are European, Kurasian, and Chinese,
many being orphans. The Masters are Englishmen generally trained
and certificated. The School is recognised as one of the most successful in the Colony. It receives a grant-in-aid from the Government, the only other sources of income being fees from the
scholars, and donations solicited annually from the public.
You are aware that the Staff of English Masters at Queen's College in this Colony has been already slightly, andis about to be further increased. Last year an appointment was made, and an Assistant Master was selected from the Diocesan School; accordingly after 6 months' notice he left us to go to Queen's College,
It is true that in accordance with agreement, he refunded a portion of the money we had expended on his passage from England, but such a refund does not compensate for the loss of a good man, whose value to us increases with his experience here; moreover such a practice throws upon us the burden of the expense of another passage from England, the additional risk of a new Master being less suitable, andthe inconvenience of delay, all which things are detrimental to our usefulness as a Public School It is obvious that we cannot repeatedly bear the cost of bringing a new Assistant Master from England.
*
It might be replied that such appointments as these are made on their merits, and cannot be interfered with. We quite agree that this is so; and we have no wish to stand in the way of the promotion of any individual Master. We do, however, object that the Management