in the newly-acquired area. As Superintendent of Victoria Gaol—a post which he held in conjunction with that of Captain Superintendent of the Police and Fire Brigade—Mr. May placed the whole of the prison on the separate system, and, while increasing thereby the deterrent effect of imprisonment, he greatly developed the means of affording industrial employment to the prisoners, by whom much of the printing work required in the various Government departments is now carried out. It was in 1902 that Mr. May received his present appointment, but his acquaintance with the Colonial Secretary's office extends as far back as January, 1887, when he was Acting-Assistant Colonial Secretary, a position in which he was confirmed four years later. Mr. May has been a member of the Legislative Council since 1895, and, by virtue of his office, he has now a seat also on the Executive Council. Upon three occasions Mr. May has administered the Government of the Colony—for eight months in 1903–4 between the departure of Sir Henry Arthur Blake, and the arrival of Sir Matthew Nathan; for five weeks at the close of 1906 and the beginning of 1907 during the absence on sick-leave of Sir Matthew Nathan after an accident at polo; and for three months in 1907 between the departure of Sir Matthew Nathan and the arrival of the present Governor, Sir F. D. Lugard. As might naturally be expected in view of his official position and long residence in the Colony, Mr. May is connected in one capacity or another with a number of local institutions. He is Rector of the Hongkong College of Medicine; Chairman of the Governing Body of Queen's College; Chairman of the Board of Examiners; President of the Y.M.C.A.; a member of the Colonial Church Council; a steward of the Jockey Club; Commodore of the Royai Hongkong Yacht Club; and a member of the Committee of the Volunteer Reserve Association and of the Hongkong Gymkhana Club. An all-round sportsman, his favourite recreations are hunting, shooting, fishing, and yachting. He is the author of several publications, including manuals for use in the police force and a history of yachting in Hongkong. Mrs. May is a daughter of General Sir George Digby Barker, K.C.B., of "The Priory," Clare, Suffolk.
THE HON. MR. WILLIAM REES-DAVIES, J.P., D.L., who was appointed Attorney-General for the Colony in 1907, was born on May 11, 1863, and is the eldest son of the late Sir William Davies, of Scoreston, Pembrokeshire, who represented his county in Parliament from 1880 to 1892. After being at Eton, Mr. Rees-Davies proceeded to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1885. Two years later he was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple, and joined the South Wales Circuit. In 1892 he succeeded his father in the representation of Pembrokeshire, in the Liberal interest for six years. During this time he was private secretary to the late Sir William Harcourt, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1893 to 1895. Mr. Rees-Davies is a Magistrate and Deputy Lieutenant for Pembrokeshire. He was Attorney-General in the Bahama Islands from 1898 to 1902, acting during a portion of that time as Chief Justice, and was King's Advocate at Cyprus from 1902 to 1907. His position now, at Hongkong, entitles him to a seat upon the Legislative Council. He is also on the Executive Council and the Standing Law Committee. He is a member of the Reform Club, London, and of the Hongkong and various local sporting clubs. His chief recreations are riding and shooting. Mr. Rees-Davies married, in 1898, Florence Beatrice, the second daughter of Mr. John Birkett, of Kendal, Westmoreland.
THE HON. MR. ALEXANDER MACDONALD THOMSON, the Colonial Treasurer of Hongkong, is, ex officio, a member of the Executive and Legislative Councils with a seat on the Finance and Public Works Committees. The second son of Mr. J. W. Thomson, M.A., schoolmaster and Isabella, the eldest daughter of the late Mr. Alexander Macdonald, of Kindrought, Portsoy, N.B., he was born on September 27, 1863, at Turriff, Scotland. He had a successful career at Aberdeen University, taking his M.A. degree, with first-class honours in mathematics, in 1883. For the following two years he was lecturer in mathematics at Naini Tal College, North-West Provinces, India, but in 1887 returned to Scotland, and, later, took up the appointment of Assistant-Professor of Mathematics at Aberdeen. In the same year he entered the Hongkong Civil Service by the usual competitive examination. After spending twelve months in the Colonial Office, during which time he won the Bacon Scholarship at Gray's Inn, he came out to the Colony, arriving In October, 1888. Having attained the necessary proficiency in the Chinese language, he was appointed, in October, 1890, to fill the temporary vacancy of Chief Clerk in the Colonial Secretary's office. Since then he has occupied numerous administrative positions, including those of Clerk of Councils, Superintendent 0f Victoria Gaol, Assistant Colonial Secretary, Registrar-General, Postmaster-General, and Colonial Secretary; and in July, 1898, was appointed permanently to his present post. During his residence in the Colony he has served on the Tung Wah Hospital Commission, the Registry of the Supreme Court Commission; and has presided over the deliberations of two Committees which have been appointed with regard to the subsidiary coinage question. He was an original member, and for some time honorary secretary of the governing body of Queen's College; was a trustee of the Belilios Scholarships; and has been vice-president, and has acted as president, of the Sanitary Board. For his services in compiling the first edition of the General Orders he received the thanks of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. Mr. Thomson is a member of the Hongkong Club, but does not now belong to any other club, having ceased for some years to take any active interest in sport, his chief recreation being reading.
THE HON. MR. WILLIAM CHATHAM, C.M.G., M.I.C.E., Director of Public Works, a member of the Executive and Legislative Councils, and vice-president of the Sanitary Board, has been associated with the development and progress of the Colony for seventeen years. He was born in July, 1859, and was educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh, and at Edinburgh University. He went first as assistant to Messrs. Thos. Meik & Sons, the well-known firm of civil engineers, Edinburgh, and afterwards to the engineer of the Bristol Docks. He came to Hongkong as Executive Engineer in 1890, and in 1893 received the acting appointment of Director of Public Works. On his return from leave in 1897, he received the additional appointments of Water Authority and member of the Legislative Council. In 1901 he acted also as president of the Sanitary Board, and in October of the same year was confirmed In the appointments which he now holds. Mr. Chatham was a member of the Queen's Jubilee Committee, acting as honorary secretary for some years, and taking a leading part in carrying out, at a cost of £20,000, the construction of the Jubilee Road and the Hospital for Women and Children. During 1907 he was created a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in recognition of his long service in the Colony. Mr. Chatham, who lives at the Peak, is a member of the Hongkong Club.
THE HON. DR. JOHN MITFORD ATKINSON, the principal Civil Medical Officer of Hongkong, was born in 1856, and is the son of the late Rev. S. Atkinson, M.A. He was educated at Woodhouse Grove School and at Queen's College, Taunton. His medical training was sound and comprehensive. He was prizeman at the London Hospital Medical College, and holds the degree of M.B. London, and the diplomas of M.R.C.S. Eng., L.S.A. Lond., and D.P.H. Cantab. For nearly eight years he was the Resident Medical Officer of St. Mary Abbott's Infirmary, Kensington, and for two years the Medical Officer of one of the districts in that locality, before coming, in 1887, to take up the appointment of Superintendent of the Government Civil Hospital, and Medical Officer to the Small Pox Hospital and the Government Lunatic Asylums, Hongkong. Seven years later he was acting as Colonial Surgeon, and in 1897 he obtained his present post. During the plague epidemic of the following year his services in preventing the spread of infection, and stamping out the disease, were acknowledged in a letter of thanks from the Secretary of State. Dr. Atkinson, who has been president of the Sanitary Board since 1897, and a member of the Executive Council since 1903, has from time to time contributed articles to the Lancet and other British medical journals. He is a Fellow of the Royal Colonial Institute and of the Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene; and is an honorary life member of the St. John Ambulance Association. He resides at Victoria Hospital, Barker Road, the Peak.
SIR C. PAUL CHATER, Kt., C.M.G.— Probably no other man has done so much for the commercial advancement of the Colony as Sir Catchick Paul Chater, Kt., C.M.G. To him Hongkong owes many of its most prosperous public companies, some twenty of which still include him on their directorate. The son of Mr. Chater Paul Chater, of Calcutta, Sir Paul was born in 1846, and arrived in Hongkong in 1864 as an assistant in the bank of Hindustan, China, and Japan. He resigned this position, in 1866, to start business as an exchange and bullion broker. In 1886 he was chosen by his fellow Justices of the Peace to fill a vacancy on the Legislative Council caused by the absence on leave of Mr. F. D. Sassoon, and when, in 1887, Mr. Sassoon resigned his seat. Sir Paul, who was then taking a holiday in India, was unanimously elected in his stead for a term of six years. He was re-elected for a further period of six years in 1893, and again in 1899, retiring upon the expiration of his
