237/10
No.44.
157 6200
&
Race 3 APR 1S
Government House.
Hong-Kong, 3rd.March, 1899.
sir,
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt
of your despatch No.10 of the 6th. January last, regarding cer-
tain appointments in the Civil Service of this Colony.
2. With regard to the post of Treasurer I con-
cur in the recommendation that Mr. A.M. Thomson should succeed
Mr.Sercombe Smith, who has been appointed Police Magistrate.
3. I had already noticed the account in the
"China Mail" of certain irregularities in the Post Office, to
which you refer, but on enquiring into the matter I did not
consider that Mr. Thomson intended it to be understood that he
knew nothing of the details of the working of the Post Office.
He himself denies that anything he stated could be construed
as having any such meaning. What he wished to convey was that,
.
on many questions of detail, he referred to his principal as-
sistant, who had larger experience of the working of the Post
office.
In this connection it should be remembered that
Mr.Thomson had no special training for the duties of the po-
sition in which he found himself.
The Right Honourable
JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN,M.P.
800.9
800.7
80.*
4