Before he had finished his studies of Cantonese, hho acted for a while as British Vice-Consul at Macao. He was later seconded for famine veller work in Kuangsi and, on returning to" Hongkong,. "was appointed Deputy Registrar of Marriages and, later, Acting Assistant. Ree gistrar General. From 1008. onwards, Mr. Fletcher has mostly been "connected with the Colonial Secretary's office but he hag, "in addition held other" Government posts, among them being Deputy Oficial "Receiver, Assistant. Attorney General, 'Acting Assessor fof Rates, Official' Receiver, Acting Colonial "Treasurer, Head of " the Sanitary Department, and, on several occasions, Private Secretary to the Governor.
Mr. Flet= cher first took his Councils in, 1018 and times acted as Colonial Secretary, in. which capacity he has been pro: minently identified with many' of the Colony's most important development projects, " He was Secretary to the Military Service Commission which sat in' 1917, he was also Chairman of the Vital Requirements and Shipping Control Committees which sat later in the same year, and only in the early part of this year he represented Hongkong's interests at the impor tant' International Opium Convention, held at Geneva under the auspices of the League of Nations. Mr. Fletcher has taken a deep and personal interest in Hongkong's rapid development of late years, has been a guide and inspiration many and was a keen devotee of the idea of town planning now being carried out in connexion with Kowloon's development, in Which he has abundant faith. His grasp of the essentials as well as fof the details of the Colony's main projects has been of tremendous value.
'In June, 1919, His Majesty the King conferred upon Mr. Fletcher the rank of Commander of the Most Excellent' Order of the British Empire, and three years later (in 1922) he was made a Compar of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St.
George.
In both Mr. and Mrs been prominently. the Colony's, social be saying "Good-circle of friends when they depart on the S. Macedonia on January 9.
¥.116,000,000 being in imports and Y. 496,000,000. in exports.—Reuter's
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.