CO129-355 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1909 [1-3] — Page 239

1

Jonclosure 1.

میز

sir,

Chambers,

Supreme Court, Hongkong,

March, 1909.

C.O.

12798

RECR

REGP 15 APR 09

237

I have the honour to acknowledge Your Excel-

-lency's letter of 11th. January in which you inform me hy

request of the Secretary of State that he regrets that I should

have embarked in newspaper correspondence relating to the

proposals I had made for increasing the Long Vacation. The

Secretary of State further expresses the opinion that newspaper

controversy hardly conduces to the dignity of the Bench upon

which I hold a conspicuous position. I have the honour to

request that this letter should be transmitted to the Secretary

of State.

2.

I an glad in the first place to observe

that the Secretary of State is not of opinion that there was any

breach of the Colonial Regulations as it appeared to him to be

the fact at first, as expressed in the Secretary of State's

despatch of 5th. August, 1908, and as surrested by His Excel-

-lency the Governor in his letter of 18th. June.

3.

In spite of this however, the expression

of the Secretary of State's opinion that I had not been duly

observant of the dignity of the Bench is I believe unmerited.

That such an opinion should be held by the Secretary of State

is exceedingly galling to a Judge whose whole aim since his

appointment to the Colony has been to raise the Bench to a

position more suited to the dignity which the Supreme Court

should hold than it has hitherto done, and who in the instance

was actuated solely by the desire to restore its dignity which

was being shaken by the unfortunate events which led up to the

letter. I desire therefore in the first place to remove the

impression