Colonies from the inside. We appointed Mr dock that from the inside for a particular reason - because he was Registrar General & we wished to combine the Registrar Generalship with the Colonial Secretary. Having appointed from the inside last time, there is a danger that the post may be looked on as belonging to the Hong Kong service. And though Mr Bockhout & Mr May have the qualification of knowing Chinese, I am not prepared to say that they are as capable as several others who have had much longer service, but not had the same chances.
It occurs to me that the Straits & Hong Kong services are competitive. Sir Clementi Smith's opinion is that the Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong should never be appointed from within. I think this is saying too much, but as a rule, he should be appointed from without. If he is appointed from without, we must fix a sterling salary. The present salary is $10,800, worth £1620 with the double exchange compensation. The Governor recommended £1780. I think £1800, giving the other allowances, will be sufficient.
In the Eastern Cadetships examinations, it is always the case that the highest are from the men named by Mr Harris. I note, in a private note, that Sir Graham Bower says that Mr Ashmore has gone to Ceylon, and that the next candidates are to be sent to British Guiana to be moved. Sir G. Strickland will be otherwise provided for. Mr Fallway has not had long service & I have stated that I do not think we had better put in a soldier.
The men who went to Ceylon 20 years ago have, as a rule, not done as well as those who went to Hong Kong, simply because Ceylon has a much smaller service; the colonies are large; inferior men get one of the two or three posts existing. It has always seemed to me the fault of our system that able men who go to Ceylon or other large colonies lack an examination test.
Sir C.C. Brookes has long earned promotion & I earnestly hope that this hardworking & honourable officer will be given it; but I would like him to be given the government of British Honduras when Sir D. Wilson retires, as he draws £1200 p.a. in Trinidad and is a poor man. I do not like to draw him across the world to £1600 in a very expensive and wholly unfamiliar Colony.
I think the Hong Kong cadets have done well for themselves, & that it will be for the advantage of the colony that the Colonial Secretaryship should be filled from the outside. If knowledge of Chinese is held to be a sine qua non - as it never has been, we shall limit our choice. One who would perhaps be the best selection among those who applied is Mr Egerton, who has lately been acting as Colonial Secretary of the Straits. In the Straits, he...