Sec.9/4518/49.
CONFIDENTIAL.
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4.
Government House,
Hong Kong.
16th June, 1949.
(2)
Dear Lloyd,
Thank you for your confidential letter of 30th April on the subject of the Public Services Commission. I agree with you that it is a point of importance whether a proportion of the vacancies which occur in the Administrative Service and the Police should be reserved for remission to the Secretary of State, and I appreciate your desire for an assurance that a sufficient proportion will be so remitted to ensure the preservation of the British character of this Administration.
2.
I do not see how we can decently retract now, even in this limited degree, the much-publicized and, I think quite reasonable policy expressed in Colonial No.197; nor do I think that it would be advisable to do so at this juncture, when so much political capital could be made out of such a retraction. It is not, however, my intention that the Public Services Commission should be an agency for liquidating the British connexion in this Colony, and in my opinion it will be some time yet before appointment to the service through the Commission will seriously affect the present ratio of Europeans to Chinese in the professional services. Paragraph 3 of Colonial No.197 describes the recruitment position in Hong Kong very succinctly. Quite apart from the particular cases of the Administrative Service and the Police, there is generally a shortage of suitably qualified local candidates for appointment to the higher branches of the Colonial Service. In the professional grades in this Colony we now have a number of Chinese Medical Officers and Assistant Medical Officers, Nursing Sisters, Masters and Assistant Masters, Assistant Engineers, Assistant Agricultural Officers, and a few other officers such as the Engineer, Kowloon-Canton Railway. There are also a number of local non-Chinese in professional appointments, e.g., Legal Officers and Woman Architect. one Chinese Cadet Officer Class II. There are no Chinese commissioned officers in the Police.
3.
There is
I do not think that it could reasonably be represented that we shall not require to fill the majority of our vacancies for appointment to unified service posts from the United Kingdom for some years to come, though there may be cases, e.g., the
Sir Thomas Lloyd, K.C.B., K.C.M.G.
Colonial Office,
The Church House,
Great Smith Street,
LONDON.S.W.1.