Extract from the "Daily Press" of the 21st January 1902.
HONGKONG, 21st January, 1902.
THE news has reached this Colony of an appointment which, while it robs Hongkong of one of its leading administrators, at the same time brings well-merited advancement to an official of whom a very high opinion is held locally. The Hon. J. H. STEWART LOCKHART, C.M.G., Colonial Secretary, has been appointed to the Commissionership of the new British colony of Weihaiwei. He will not, we believe, actually take up the appointment for another two months' time, and in the meantime will continue to give the benefit of his services to Hongkong. Mr. STEWART LOCKHART's very numerous friends here will receive the news of his promotion with great pleasure. As an official, there have been, perhaps necessarily under a Crown Colony system of government, not a few occasions when he has come in conflict with the desires of local non-official residents, but nevertheless throughout his twenty-two years' connection with Hongkong he has succeeded in inspiring the utmost respect for his character and attainments. His transference to Weihaiwei not only indicates that the Colonial Office is alive to his merits, but is also a guarantee that in the future the Colony to which he is to be removed is to receive more adequate attention than has hitherto been vouchsafed to it. Those people, therefore, who have anxiously watched the policy of the British Government toward its latest offshoot in China will feel reassured at the news of the first appointment to the office of Commissioner.
With regard to the vacancy which will be created in the local official ranks by the Hon. J. H. STEWART-LOCKHART's promotion, it is obvious that there will be no little difficulty in filling it. Hongkong, as everything goes to prove, is a place rapidly growing in size and importance. It becomes in consequence increasingly urgent that those chiefly concerned in its administration should be suitable men for their posts and that no pains should be spared to secure the best possible occupants for office. Hongkong is now, moreover, passing through a crisis in its history. On the success or failure of the sanitary measures at present being taken, or on the point of being taken, a great deal depends. It is earnestly hoped by all interested in the Colony's future welfare that we may be able to drive from our midst the evils of constantly recurring disease and its concomitants, which have of late so gravely threatened our progress. Other urgent questions press for solution. The office of Colonial Secretary will be the reverse of a sinecure. A worthy successor to the post which the Hon. J. H. STEWART LOCKHART is vacating is vital to the advance of Hongkong. There is a natural prejudice in favour of men who are already well-known locally, and provided a desirable candidate can be found we imagine that residents would like to see promotion falling to the lot of a tried public servant. But in default of a local appointment, all will pray that whoever may be brought in from outside the limits of the Hongkong Government service will be a man of undoubted strength and character.
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