The "L. & C. Express" tells us that Sir Charles Addis has decided to retire from the managership of the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank's London office at the end of next month or the beginning of October. He will, however, retain the chairmanship of the London committee, and will remain head of the British group in the Chinese Consortium. Sir Charles will thus be relieved of the daily round of work associated with the managership. te may be fittingly recalled that Sir Charles has the distinction of being the only banker who has been appointed a director of the Bank of England, and he will continue his membership of the bank Court. Sir Charles, who will be 60 in November next, has had a strenuous career, doing much_ brilliant and solid work for the Bank, and for some time past it has been well known that he was anxious to be relieved of routine work. He ranks as the leading authority on banking and financial questions connected with the Far East. For his public services he received the honour of knighthood in 1913, and was made @ K.CG.M.G., on the occasion of the recent King's Birthday honours. The position that Sir Charles vacates, the "L. & C. Express" adds, will be taken up by Sir Newton Stabb, who quite recently retired from. the chief managership of the bank at Hongkong, which he had held for 10 years. Sir Newton has spent tne whole of his business life in the service of the bank, and possesses in marked degree those qualities which go to the making of the successful banker.
Mr. Rose's Retirement The retirement of Mr. Archibald Rose, c.1.8, from the Consular Service, to enter the employraent of the British-American Tobacco Company, cannot but attract wide attention, the wider that Mr. Rose was one of the best known men in the Consular Service. And for the interests of that service it will be generally regretted. Incidentally it throws into strong relief a complaint that has frequently been expressed in thes columns, namely that the conditions for a consular official in China are not made nearly attractive enough, and it is the plain fact that after 29 years service one of these officials will be receiving less pay than many a man in a subordinate position in business, in the Customs or in the Municipal Council. A_ mercantile career, of course, offers plums which no Civil Service can rival. But if the Foreign Office is to continue to get and keep good men for China, in these days of H. C. L., ¢|the discrepancy will have to be made less glaring then it is.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.