CO129-389 - Governor Sir Lugard Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1912 [3-4] — Page 227

Enclosure 1.

Extract from the "Hongkong Daily Press" of 14th. March, 1912m

H.F. THE GOVERNOR.

ADP

RESS FROM THE CIVIL

SERVANTS.

An Address was presented to His Ex- cellency the Governor by the members of the Civil Service at noon yesterday. A large representative gathering awaited His Excellency in the Ball Room at Government House, and on his arrival,

Mr. CLAUD SEVERN (Colonial Secretary) read the Address, which is as follows:- To SIR FREDERICK JOHN DEALTRY LUGARD, G.C.M.G., C.B., D.S.0.; Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Hongkong.

May it please Your Excellency,- We the undersigned, members of the Civil Service of all grades in the Colony of Hongkong, desire to convey to Your Ex- cellency our respectful congratulations on the honour which His Majesty the King has conferred on you by entrusting you with the Administration of the United Territories of Northern and Southern Nigeria. Such an appointment is a high tribute to Your Excellency's administra- tive capacity, which has been shown in such a marked degree during your term of office as Governor here.

It is impossible within the limits of an Address to review the principal events of the past few years, or to enumerate the various subjects, in some cases of great importance to the Colony, which have engaged your attention and received the benefit of your wise judgment, but we desire in particular to allude to that great project which has occupied so much of your time and energy, namely, the found- ing of the University of Hongkong, the coping stone of your great efforts in the cause of Education. It is due to your statesmenlike foresight that Hongkong is first in the field prepared to take advant- age of the call for Education in Western methods which the recent changes in China have brought about, and the result of your efforts cannot fail to be further cementing of the friendly relations now happily existing between Great Britain and China. It must be as gratifying to you as it is to all who have the welfare of this Colony at heart that it has been found possible to held the Opening Ceremony before you leave Hongkong.

It is our earnest hope that Lady Lugard may shortly be restored to health. Her labours in the sphere of philanthropy are characteristic of her life, and Hongkong owes a deep debt of gratitude to her for all she bas done to help on every good work. We can express no better wish than that she may be enabled in a different and wider sphere to pursue further her noble efforts in the cause of Charity and Civilization.

We tender to Your Excellency an ex- pression of our sincere good wishes for the future happiness of yourself and Lady Lugard.

Hongkong, March, 1912.

[Here follow the signatures of all the heads of Departments.]

The Judges desire to associate them- selves with the Service in presenting this Address.

(Signed) F. J. PIGGOTT, C.J.

H. H. J. GOMPERTZ, P.J. [Here follow signatures of Assistant Heads and subordinates of all Depart- ments in the Service.]

I

2

223

H13 EXCELLENCY, in reply said:-I am deeply grateful to you, gentlemen, for the kind words recorded in the Addies which you, sir, have just read. Mofi soul in have spent long years in this Cotony, andTM! most of you have been here longer than myself, but I think that I feel as much identified with the Civil Service of Hong- kong as any of you can. For the interests and problems of this Colony have for close ou five years been my continued study and occupation to the exclusion of practically any reading or attention to any subject outside the Colony and its daily press, so that I naturally feel as though I were being uprooted and trans- ferred to another soil and atmosphere. I greatly regret to leave you, but the sum- mons to another place came in terms which left me no option but to obey. I shall look back upon my time here as perhaps the pleasantest in my life, in spite of the anxiety caused by the long con- tinued illness of my wife. I thank you most especially for the terms in which you have alluded to her. It is a source of deep regret to her that she has been prevented from doing her part at Government House, and acquiring as personal a touch with the whole Civil Service as she would have wished to do. I am proud to have been associated with so able and so loyal a band of colleagues. Hitherto I have occupied the position of your official chief. In a day or two that relation will cease, and I trust it may be replaced by mutual and long continued friendship. If it should fortunately at any time be in my power to serve your individual interests, I hope you will not hesitate to give me the opportunity. Those of you who are my compatriots I shall hope to meet from time to time in England. To those of you whose homes are in the East I must say a long good-bye. I wish you all success both individually and in your work of administration in this important Colony. For it I cannot desire a better future than that it may continue to be served by as strenuous, as high-principled and as able a Civil Service as it has at this

moment.

The Address was enclosed in handsome blackwood covers with silver mountings and His Excellency's initials in the centre.