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His Excellency

Sir Francis Henry May, K.C.M.G. Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony of Hong Kong and Dependencies and

Vice-Admiral of the same.

The Memorial and humble Petition of

Charles William Falk of Victoria in the

Colony of Hong Kong Master Mariner

Showeth as follows :-

1. Your Petitioner was born of Swedish parents at Mariestad

in the Kingdom of Sweden in the year 1874 and was brought up in

the Christian faith.

1. In the year 1890 when your Petitioner was of the age of

16 years he left Sweden and went to sea.

1. Your Petitioner is now forty-three years of age.

1. He has been serving in British ships ever since he left Sweden in 1890 except for the period of four years when he was in South

Africa and where he fought for Great Britain in the Boer War.

Your Petitioner is Chief Officer of the steamship "Tai

Sang", a steamer belonging to the Indo China Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. in whose employ he has been for the last eight and a half years.

1. Your Petitioner holds a Master's Certificate which was

granted to him in London in the year 1908 by the Board of Trade.

1. Your Petitioner intends to reside in British Dominions

and serve on British ships for the remainder of his life and he

is desirous of becoming a naturalised British subject and of

taking the oath of allegiance to His Britannic Majesty.

1. The following are the particulars required to be given

by your Petitioner in this his Memorial