CO129-381 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1911 [11-12] — Page 509

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Enclosure 2.

Sir,

Chambers,

Supreme Court, Hongkong,

1st December, 1911.

Rece

Rag 19 JAN 12

I must again express my profound surprise and regret that Sir E. Grey should have adopted the series of reasons contained in Mr. Langley's letter of 11th. March, 1909, and that they should have been endorsed by Lord Crewer and apparently also by Mr.. Harcourt. These reasons are based on a series of misconceptions, and one of them on an imperfect knowledge of law. Further, the personal

comparison must have been most distasteful to Sir H. de Sausmarez,

and the slightest examination of the work of the Courts of Hongkong

and Shanghai would have shown that such unusual and invidious com-

-parisons, not only should never have been made, but were inaccurate.

I append to this letter a memorandum dealing with some of the most salient defects of the scheme. Inputting it forward I must again express my regret that a scheme which alters so

fundamentally the judicial procedure of the Colony should not only have been proposed by the Government but sanctioned at home without

the opinion of the Chief Justice being taken upon it, and without

consultation with the legal profession the interests of whose clients

it so seriously affects.

I now come to the charge which has been made against me and which has fumished the reason for my dismissal. The following paragraph occurred in the Foreign Office letter of March 11th., 1909:- "Sir E. Grey has reluctantly come to the conclusion that this correspondence displays a complete absence of that spirit of cordiality and good will on the part of the Chief Justice without which the scheme could never have succeeded". This criticism of my attitude was endorsed by Lord Crewe. It apparently has now been made the basis for the request for my dismissal by the Foreign rizs

Office, and has been acquiesced in by Er. Harcourt.

I have the greatest difficulty in attributing any

definite meaning to Sir E. Grey's language. If the scheme is accepted

by