Retirement of Mr. Zee Hai-doo, a Veteran Employee Secretariat Staff of the 1 Council said farewell on Saturday last to a valued and popular colleague in the person of Mr. Zee Hai-doo, who has for over 30 years had the closest of associ tions with succeeding Councils, Secretaries and their staffs. Mr. Zee is retiring on a highly deserved pension; but the present Council has decided that in view of his intimate Knowledge of matters municipal and especially of Secretariat routine, his still be available' for! should the necessity arise and he accordingly retires on a "retainer" basis.
Mr, Zee has served the ratepayers of Shanghai most faithfully, under five or six Secretaries, since he came to the office in the concluding years of last century when Mr. J. 0. P. Bland was Secretary. It is no exaggeration to say that he was a very useful adviser as well as friend to Mr. Bland, to Mr. Leveson, to Mi MacKinnon and to the other Secre taries of Council of more recent years and it is an interesting commentary on the happy relations that have always been maintained between the foreign and Chinese Staffs of the Secretariat that through all the years since their retiral to the homeland Messrs. Bland and Leveson have not forgotten their old colleague but have corresponded regularly with Mr. Zee Hai-doo, and their letters have frequently been chiefly of thanks for his advice and guidance to them during their years at the Council helm. These letters, needless to say, are highly treasured by Mr. Zee Hai-doo who has good reason to look back with pride on is association with the men who: have had a big share in the development of Shanghai from the mud-tint Settlement of 1900 to the 2099 prosperous, modern city of to-day. Mr. Zee's career, in fact, is a record of the city's. development in these years, but there have, of course, been outstanding events in his work for the Council. It would require a lengthy history to go into these in detail. That he hus, however, by consistently faithful' service over: this long period of years gained for himself the intimate and sincere friendship of such men as Mr. Bland.;|and Mr. Leveson is ample indication of his worth to the community.
Mr. Zee has risen and deserved ly risen to his present high -position in the Council staff "by reason of a close! attention to duty in those carlie years of his service and an unswerving loyalty to the interests of the Council in those Intter years—which have not been so peaceful as they might have been. It is now known that this loyalty to the interests of his employers, the ratepayers of Shanghai,, has on occasion led to the receipt of threatening letters by Mr. Zee who has, however, at all times been instrumental in maintaining the Chinese service of that important contre of Council activities, the Secretariat. In these days of improved understanding and closer cooperation it is well to look back upon the days when Shanghai suffered under the general strike and he able to recall such examples of, loyalty of service as that performed at no small personal danger by Mr. Zee Hai-doo. Of a very quiet and unassuming nature, Mr. Zee is of the type whose deeds speak much louder than his words and it is highly probable that very few of the many members of Council in those years that have passed since Mr. Zee first joined the service even any time would have known by sight the employee responsible for so much of the inner routine Council working. He was in truth on many occasions the man behind the scenes— responsible for the smooth' working of the show but forgotten, or least prominent, when the applause was being given. It is, therefore, only fitting that these few lines should do him honour and—one trusts— give him pleasure in his retirement.
The foreign staff of the Secretarian assembled on June 28 in the office of the Secretary, Mr.
M. Edwards, who on behalf of all present, voiced their regret at Mr. Zoe's retirement, their pleasure that he would still come among them when his services were desired, and' their happiness
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.