3.
40
nothing will convince me that this department could not perfectly
well be run with at least half their foreign staff. Excepting for the actual heads of the department and the senior surveyors
most of the appointments certainly the subordinate ones - might
be filled almost entirely by Chinese. As regards the outdoor
staff by that I mean overseers etc.
G
-
I firmly believe that
G
the type of European at present employed, in nine cases out of ten
reflects no credit upon us, and the services of these men might
readily be dispensed with if the P.W.D. devised a system which
they could do that would make certain of proper control. In India
I am told no foreign overseers are employed in the Public Works
Department. Full use has been made of natives, and if that can be
done there, it should be equally possible in Hong Kong, provided
the right type is employed. In every other Department of the
Government the same, more or less, can be said in regard to the
possibility of making greater use of the Chinese and training them
in Municipal administration.
The question, however, is most complex, and I do not fail
to appreciate that, unless the whole problem is understood
thoroughly by the Government in England and the latter are
definitely prepared to make it part of British policy that the
local Government of Hong Kong will be utilised as a means to an
end, full advantage cannot possibly be taken of the undoubted
resources we have in the Colony for training Chinese and
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