The Right Honourable Joseph Chamberlain, M.P.
His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies,
Sir,
Government House, Hong Kong, March 23, 1908.
I beg respectfully to lay before you the following facts concerning a matter which has arisen out of the action of the Hongkong Government.
2. I arrived in Hongkong in April, 1902, as Special Commissioner of the University of Chicago. Through your courtesy, I was provided with credentials to the Officer administering the Government, and I commenced at once the task of enquiring into the system of government in force in the Colony.
3. The nature of my enquiries brought me into touch with the officials of the Secretariat, and in private conversation with the Hon. F. H. May, C.M.G., the Colonial Secretary, I referred on several occasions to certain defects which appeared to me to exist in the arrangement of the Council Chamber Library and in the system adopted, in the Secretariat for the filing and recording of official documents.
4. As an outcome of these conversations, Mr. May asked me, without any solicitation on my part, whether I would be willing on the occasion of my return to Hongkong in 1903 to undertake the revision of the system of filing and recording documents at present in force in the Colony and the making of a proper index to the Council Chamber Library.
5. To this, I replied that it would be difficult for me to spare the necessary time for the work, but that as I was anxious to reciprocate in any way I could the great kindness which had been extended to me by the Colonial Office when I was in London, I would undertake the work referred to, if an official request were made, for a fee of £100.
6. In December, 1902, I received a letter from Mr. May (of which an exact copy is attached, numbered ENCLOSURE A) informing me that the Secretary of State for the Colonies had approved my temporary engagement, in the event of my return to Hongkong in 1903, to index the Library of the Council Chamber and revise the system by which documents are recorded and filed in the Hongkong Secretariat, and that a sum of £100 would be paid me on completion of the work.
7. To this communication, I replied (an exact copy of my letter attached, numbered ENCLOSURE B) stating that I should return to Hongkong in November 1903, that I would be happy to undertake the work, and suggesting that certain purely clerical work in connection with the indexing of the Library might be done before I arrived in the Colony.
8. In reply to this, I received a further letter from Mr. May informing me that Mr. Drayson, Chief Clerk in the Secretariat, had undertaken to do the work in question without additional remuneration, and that the work would be completed before my return to the Colony. (An exact copy of this letter is attached, numbered ENCLOSURE C.)
9. I replied at once (an exact copy of my letter is enclosed and numbered ENCLOSURE D) to the effect that the original letter (ENCLOSURE A) bore the initials of Mr. Drayson as drafting clerk, and that if he had intended to do the work referred to, he might have made known his intention before he had despatched the letter.