RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h
56

HENRY JAMES LETHBRIDGE

In 1878, after success in the competitive examination held by the Civil Service Commissioners in London, he was appointed a Hong Kong cadet by the Secretary of State for the Colonies. He had wished to join, like his friend E.D.H. Fraser,3 the Indian Civil Service but his address to the Civil Service Commissioners for service in India had been turned down. Lockhart was the eighth cadet officer appointed to Hong Kong after the introduction of Hong Kong cadetships by Sir Richard MacDonnell in 1861. Sir Richard had been concerned to recruit young men from Britain who would train to become interpreters, for there was a great need for such persons in the Hong Kong public service at that time. But Sir Richard's scheme was not, properly speaking, an innovation since it was closely modelled on the system devised in 1854 for supplying interpreters to the Consular Service in China. The practice in Hong Kong was for a successful cadet, who had to be between the age of 20 and 23 on the first day of his examination, to remain in Britain for one year after appointment, during which time he was required to begin learning Chinese and to attend a class for students at King's College, London, held by the Professor of Chinese at that institution. The cadet was also employed for some hours daily at the Colonial Office in the work of the Department. At the end of his year's study the cadet was examined in Chinese, and the confirmation of his appointment depended upon both his passing a satisfactory examination and on the performance of his duties in the Office. Lockhart appears to have had no difficulties in meeting these requirements.

It seems likely that the European public in Hong Kong first knew of Lockhart when they saw a notification from the Colonial Secretary, W.H. Marsh, in the Government Gazette of 1879 which simply stated: 'It is hereby notified that James Haldane Stewart Lockhart, Esq., has been appointed by Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, to be a Cadet in the Hong Kong Civil Service, and that he reported his arrival in the Colony on Tuesday, the 18th November, 1879.' Lockhart had set out from England by P. and O. steamer some time in September 1879; and, as was the form, immediately reported his arrival in Hong Kong to the Colonial Secretary. At that date it was the custom for a newly arrived cadet from Britain to spend a few weeks in the Colony before proceeding to Canton. During his brief stay in the Colony, the cadet was quizzed by senior officials, instructed as to his future
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063
39

one else. The general expectation was that May and Francis would be treated in the same way. However, whereas May was awarded the C.M.G., Francis was merely offered an inkstand. The discrepancy was made all the more apparent by the fact that inkstands were also awarded to a number of junior officials.

On 22 May 1895 the Governor wrote to Francis "By the direction of the Marquess of Ripon I have great pleasure in forwarding to you the accompanying handsome inkstand. You will find engraved on it the following inscription: 'Presented by the Hong Kong Government with the approval of Her Majesty's Government to J.J. Francis Esq., Q.C., Chairman of the Permanent Committee of the Sanitary Board, in recognition of services rendered during the epidemic of bubonic plague at Hong Kong in 1894'. For those services you have already been thanked by me, and also by the Secretary of State for the Colonies. In again expressing my appreciation of the work which you then performed so willingly and so ably it only remains for me now to ask you to accept this inkstand from the Government of Hong Kong as a slight recognition of your disinterested and valuable labours during the epidemic of 1894". Francis replied in a letter dated 27th May which he made public. After reviewing the work of the Permanent Committee and his part in it he said that the Public Committee felt that a medal or piece of plate, however valuable, was no sufficient acknowledgement for his services and in the circumstances it was impossible for him to accept the inkstand. He was perfectly satisfied with the thanks of the community and the Governor and Secretary of State and would have sufficient memorial of the plague year in the gold medal to be presented by his fellow citizens and in the state of his fee book. He would have been highly gratified if he had been honoured in the same way as May but the gift of an inkstand was so ludicrously inadequate to the services he had rendered that he could only conclude that the Secretary of State was under a false impression as to their nature. It was usual in England, or at least always had been, to award the honours of the campaign to the leader. He had done his work freely and voluntarily and without a thought, at the time, of anything beyond serving the colony but he now had a duty to speak out in justice to the Public Committee.
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