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(I would observe, incidentally, that I consider that I should have been consulted before this was done) and the command of the Forces devolved upon Lieutenant-Colonel J. R. Wyndham of the Wiltshire Regiment, who has been only a few months in the Colony. Colonel Wyndham occupied the position of Officer Commanding the Troops for about a week and has now been replaced by Colonel J. R. Young, Commanding Royal Engineers, who has returned from leave for that purpose.
I have,
of
course, no qualifications to judge of Colonel Young's capacity as an officer of Engineers, but, as a man, his views appear to be somewhat peculiar and his personality is more than somewhat uncouth. That the Government of the Colony should be adminis- tered by either Colonel Wyndham or Colonel Young is inconceiv-
able.
4.
I was serving in the Eastern Department of the Colonial Office at the time when Mr. Lyttelton's despatch was written and, if I remember aright, the decision to prefer the Senior Military Officer to an Acting Colonial Secretary was due, at least in part, to the fact that at that time the Acting Colonial Secretary was likely to be an officer of very short experience. That is not the case now as the officers at the head of the service, from among whom the Acting Colonial Secretary would be selected, are all men of ripe age and experience. The present holder of the post, Mr. A. G. M. Fletcher, who is 41 years of age, is regarded by others besides myself as one of the best officers in His Majesty's service, and I may say that, in the event of the Colonial Secretaryship becoming vacant, his appointment to the substantive post would be received with widespread approval in the Colony. It is not too much to say that the appointment of any military officer other than the Major-General Commanding the Forces to administer the Government while Mr. Fletcher is acting as Colonial Secre- tary would give a shock to public opinion both European and
Chinese.
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