CO129-407 - Public Offices & Others - 1913 — Page 158

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Сор

Sir,

Government House

Hong Kong.

157

C.O.

4700

10 FEB 01

14

6th January, 1913.

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your

letter 96406/12 (M.S.1.) dated 15th November, and in reply I

would urge that the Army Council should agree with me in

considering it necessary for two military officers to be on

the staff of the Governor of Hongkong as Aides-de-Camp.

2. Experience has demonstrated that it is impossible

for one A.D.C. to cope with the official work required of him

in Hongkong. Sir M. Nathan kept an extra A.D.C. whose

salary he defrayed out of his own pocket, while Sir F. Lugard

resorted to the expedient, which I have adopted, of having as

his Private Secretary an officer of the Army who can on

occasion assist the A.D.0. The number of British and Foreign

Men-of-War visiting this port probably exceeds the number to

be found during the year in any other port in a Crown Colony.

Last year the number reached 70. There is in addition

during six months of the year an uninterrupted stream of

visitors to the Colony many of whom have to be entertained

while the number of social functions in the Colony is such as

to demand constant inroads upon the time of the A.D.C. So

impossible have I found it to cope with the work with one

A.D.C. that I have appointed 2 Honorary As.D.C. drawn from the

Hongkong Volunteers to assist at large social functions.

These gentlemen cannot however assist in the performance of

what

!