3
DESTROYED UNDER
DESTROYED UNDES
Colbleeman
convement.
the 6Rock
To bol. Sleasan
will
1/x
call on
Widnesday
4.1037
at 11:30 Am
Last week Colonel Sleeman, Chief
Commissioner of St. John Ambulance Brigade
Overseas, came by appointment to the Colonial
Office for the purpose mentioned in No. 1 on
this file. Dr. O'Brien and I saw him.
He explained that St. John Ambulance
affairs in Hong Kong were in the hands of a
Mr. Morris, a retired official in the Education
Department of the Colonial Government.
Mr. Morris retired some two years ago, but for
many years before his retirement he had been
the leader of the local branch of the Brigade.
When he first took it on there was virtually
no organisation in existence, but thanks to
his keen interest and his powerful personality,
he had built up one of the largest and best
equipped St. John Ambulance organisations in
any Colony. He had been most successful in
extracting large sums of money from the local
Chinese in Hong Kong and from certain wealthy
Chinese in Singapore. With these resources
the local organisation comprised some 700
active workers and was responsible for some
30 or more well equipped first-aid clinics in
villages in the New Territories.
Colonel Sleeman had himself this year
completed a tour of the Far East, including
Hong Kong. He found that Mr. Morris was a
virtual dictator of St. John affairs in that
Colony to an extent which was positively
disquieting. In spite of the large sums of
money collected (by something akin to bullying
methods)