Confidential
Hong Kong,
4th October 1906
Government House.
I have the honour to enclose in clear versions of my telegram and of Your Lordship's of the 6th inst; and of subsequent telegrams to and from the Commander in Chief, China Station, on the subject of the appointment of a naval officer, with previous experience of the mercantile marine, to act as Harbour Master at Hongkong during the absence on leave of the Assistant Harbour Master and pending the appointment of a successor to the late Captain A.L. Aaronsen as an officer of Harbour Master.
2. Your Lordship will see that Sir Arthur Moore has proposed for the acting appointment Lieut. Beckwith, Navigating Lieutenant of "Druid", and that I have accepted this proposal, and that the officer named will be available after the 19th instant.
3. Lieut. Beckwith has served in his present rank since October 1905 when he joined the Navy under the Order-in-Council of the 20th June 1905 after 4 years' experience in the Mercantile Marine. My reasons for mentioning his name and that of Lieut. Butterworth in my telegram to Sir Arthur Moore were that I knew both, previously to receiving commissions in the Navy, had been in the Merchant service and that I had heard good reports of both from officers under whom they had served in H.M. Ships.
4. To secure the best officer I could for the temporary appointment, which is one of great importance to the Colony, I thought it advisable to offer the full salary attached to the post, viz: at the rate of £780 per annum.
5. The question of filling the permanent appointment presents some difficulty. The present Assistant Harbour Master, Mr. H. Jaglar, who is 45 years of age and served in the Royal Navy from 1878 to 1898 when he resigned his commission, joined the Colonial service in the post he now occupies in September 1899. He has since then on three occasions for periods of 15, 6, and 3 months respectively acted as Harbour Master.
6. On the retirement of Capt. Rumsey, Mr. Basil Taylor applied for the post and in forwarding his application, the then Governor, Sir Henry Blake, stated in his dispatch No. 404, dated the 24th August 1903, as follows: - "During the period in which Mr. Basil Taylor has discharged the duties of Harbour Master in the absence of Capt. Rumsey, he has given entire satisfaction both to the Government and to the public. I consider him a long way the most suitable officer for the appointment." When about a year later, I forwarded in my dispatch No. 652 dated the 29th September 1904, an application from Taylor to be considered for any other similar post which might become vacant, I stated that he was "capable, zealous, and worthy of promotion" and that the recent appointment of Capt. Barrie Laurence to be Harbour Master at Singapore made it improbable that there would be any promotion for Mr. Taylor in this Colony for some years to come. About 6 months later, Taylor applied to the Secretary of State for the appointment of Harbour Master at Singapore. In forwarding this application in my despatch No. 72 of the 13th March 1905, I referred to the favourable opinion of Taylor's capacity I had expressed in my previous dispatch, and to the experience he had gained in the Harbour Department of this Colony. A further application from Taylor for the Administrationship of Labuan was forwarded in my despatch No. 251 of the 19th August, in which I confined myself to referring to my previous communication.
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