CO129-376 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1911 [3-4] — Page 471

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not be filled from that service.

The post of Crown Solicitor

stands on a different footing, and I

}

think that it should as a general rule be

fully

filled from the Cadet service, if qualified

candidates are available.

4.

Having regard to these con-

siderations, you will probably agree with

me that the adoption of the proposal

for the appointment of legal cadets is

unnecessary and, in any case,

I think

that the difficulties involved are so

The

great as to render it impracticable.

suggestion marked (a) in paragraph 9 of

your despatch that preference should be

given to a special class of candidates

/

would be difficult to reconcile with the

conditions under which the competitive

examination is conducted.

It is most

probable that none of the candidates who

would

would normally be eligible for Cadetships

would have the desired qualifications, and

therefore it would be necessary to pass

them over in favour of candidates lower on

the list a course which would certainly

cause considerable discontent and would

also have the disadvantage of entailing

the loss to HongKong of the services of men

higher on the list who it is likely would

have proved to be more efficient officers.

I may add that it is improbable that candi-

dates who were already barristers or law

students or who had taken legal degrees at

the Universities, would be available, and

that therefore the practical result of the

adoption of the suggestion would be that

the appointments would fall to men who had

taken the law papers in the competitive

examination.

In many cases, however, probably

in most the fact that a candidate takes

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