CO129-387 - Individuals - 1911 — Page 234

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employees through whose instrumentality the theft was rendered

possible were retained on the staff, no notice was taken of my

representations as to the complicity of the senior Chinese clerk,

while I was only informed that I was held to blame for the theft

six months after the event, after I had left the Colony, on leave, and had no access to any of the previous correspondence. 227

4. Now I, alone, am held responsible for a crime

committed by a dishonest Chinese who was only enabled to commit

it by the connivance of an untrustworthy Chinese who had been placed in a position of trust against my will and in face of my protests, and of his fellow junior Chinese clerks; while no defi- ciency could have resulted had my recommendations as to the bon-

-ding of the "shroff" (the thief) been carried out. These two causes, which were beyond my control, rendered useless all my other precautions against dishonesty and loss to the Colony, and,

I submit, removed the responsibility from my shoulders.

5. The total amount stolen was, to the best of my

recollection, $1500. Of this sun I am called upon to pay one half, but it does not appear who is to pay the other half; I

Were it presume, however, that the Colony will bear the loss.

otherwise, and the officer responsible for the appointment and

retention of the accountant, and for the rejection of my recom- -mendations, called upon to pay the remaining $750, I should consider the stigma upon my character removed, and the moral responsibility alone to remain, and would cheerfully pay the sum demanded, ill as I can afford to do so.

6. The Harbour Department at Hongkong is in a most

unusual position. It controls the greatest shipping port in the world, which forms the raison d'etre of the Colony, for

Its every without its shipping the Colony could not exist.

interest is intimately connected with the harbour and the trade which it brings, so that every detail is governed, to a greater or less degree, by the methods adopted in dealing with maritime

affairs