427
D.C. Bray, Hong Kong Metamorphosis, Hong Kong University Press, 2001, pp 245. index, plates.
Denis Bray was born in Hong Kong, and entered the Hong Kong Government in 1950 as a Cadet Officer, retiring in 1985 as Secretary for Home Affairs and Deputy to the Governor: since his retirement, he has continued to live in Hong Kong. Given this history, he is uniquely qualified to speak about the development of Hong Kong in recent decades. His book, however, is not a history. It is a series of reminiscences. Many parts of his career are passed over. He does not produce any deep analyses of events; nor does he philosophise on what it was that inspired and motivated him. He merely describes those events which, looking back, he remembers with affection and continuing interest.
The book opens with one of the best and sunniest descriptions of a happy childhood that I have read for many years. His home in Foshan, in the centre of Guangdong Province, where his father ran a missionary hospital, his holidays in Hong Kong, his schooling in North China, and the journeys to and fro, are all remembered and described well. His family's return to England as war approached, his education at Cambridge, and his discovery of rowing, follow, in an almost equally beguiling account. This was first given as a lecture to HKBRAS, as is handsomely stated in the book.
The central half of the book relates scenes from his early career in Hong Kong before he reached the level of Secretary for Home Affairs with a seat on the Legislative and Executive Councils. Few personal details intrude, apart from occasional glimpses of Denis on his dinghy, or, later, his yacht. What we see is Denis the administrator, and what a splendid glimpse he gives of a classic Colonial Service administrator of the best type! He notes that a Colonial Service officer could be assumed to 'be used to championing the interests of the people where he was working against the tendency of London to give more importance to the interests of Britain' (p. 171), and, again, ‘everyone knew that our job was to look out for the ordinary citizen' (p. 138). Time and again, Denis describes situations where hide-bound bureaucrats, anxious only to "play it by the book,” and to maximise Government income, were creating unfairness for ordinary people. Denis, once and again, comes up with some scheme to eliminate the unfairness, often by bending the rules, or introducing some extra-legal administrative procedure, which
427
D.C. Bray, Hong Kong Metamorphosis, Hong Kong University Press, 2001, pp 245. index, plates.
Denis Bray was born in Hong Kong, and entered the Hong Kong Government in 1950 as a Cadet Officer, retiring in 1985 as Secretary for Home Affairs and Deputy to the Governor: since his retirement, he has continued to live in Hong Kong. Given this history, he is uniquely qualified to speak about the development of Hong Kong in recent decades. His book, however, is not a history. It is a series of reminiscences. Many parts of his career are passed over. He does not produce any deep analyses of events; nor does he philosophise on what it was that inspired and motivated him. He merely describes those events which, looking back, he remembers with affection and continuing interest.
The book opens with one of the best and sunniest descriptions of a happy childhood that I have read for many years. His home in Foshan, in the centre of Guangdong Province, where his father ran a missionary hospital, his holidays in Hong Kong, his schooling in North China, and the journeys to and fro, are all remembered and described well. His family's return to England as war approached, his education at Cambridge, and his discovery of rowing, follow, in an almost equally beguiling account. This was first given as a lecture to HKBRAS, as is handsomely stated in the book.
The central half of the book relates scenes from his early career in Hong Kong before he reached the level of Secretary for Home Affairs with a seat on the Legislative and Executive Councils. Few personal details intrude, apart from occasional glimpses of Denis on his dinghy, or, later, his yacht. What we see is Denis the administrator, and what a splendid glimpse he gives of a classic Colonial Service administrator of the best type! He notes that a Colonial Service officer could be assumed to 'be used to championing the interests of the people where he was working against the tendency of London to give more importance to the interests of Britain' (p. 171), and, again, ‘everyone knew that our job was to look out for the ordinary citizen' (p. 138). Time and again, Denis describes situations where hide-bound bureaucrats, anxious only to "play it by the book,” and to maximise Government income, were creating unfairness for ordinary people. Denis, once and again, comes up with some scheme to eliminate the unfairness, often by bending the rules, or introducing some extra-legal administrative procedure, which
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