the conditions in their own countryside;
9
14
but only 80
far is Hong Kong relevant to the points at issue.
In the matter of the Admi istrative service proper (with which it is convenient to include the senior Police posts) it is again difficult to approximat the system of a Crown Colony with that of an indigenous government. Both services were what has already been described as "unified", and, although transfers to and from other Colonies were, on account of language difficulties, rare in the lower ranges, the method of original selection and the general conditions of service were Empire-wide. The only principle that is perhaps worth noting is that first appointment should be strictly on academic grounds with an especial avoidance of any form of nepotism or local influence; but this is already inherent in the age-long tradition of public examinations in China and, still more importantly, the old practice of never appointing any high of icial to a post in his own native Province.
Emphasis was laid, at the beginning of this paper, upon the inapplicability of the terms of the Atlantic Charter to the barren rock of Hong