U.S. and Hong Kong (2009)

U.S. Department of State

American Foreign Service Association's Memorial Plaque Ceremony

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
C Street Lobby
Washington, DC
May 1, 2009

MR. NALAND: Please be seated. Good morning, everyone. My name is John Naland. As president of American Foreign Service Association, it's my deep privilege to join my colleagues from across the Foreign Service and the foreign affairs community to pay tribute to those who have lost their lives in the line of duty while serving overseas.

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Felix Russell Engdahl joined the Foreign Service in 1930. After serving as Vice Consul in Port-au-Prince and Kolkata, he was transferred to Shanghai. He traveled to Hong Kong on courier duty and was there on December 7, 1941. He and several other Foreign Service members were captured by the Japanese when Hong Kong fell. He died in May 1942 from an accidental fall while in an internment camp.

Thomas W. Waldron was appointed as the first U.S. Consul to Hong Kong in 1843. He traveled to Macau on an official visit in September 1844, where he died of cholera.

Edmund Roberts was appointed as Special Diplomatic Agent in 1832 by President Andrew Jackson, who tasked him to negotiate commercial treaties with Muscat, Siam, Cochin China and Japan. While in Siam, Mr. Roberts contracted dysentery and died in Macau on his way to Japan.

AFSA is grateful to Jason Vorderstrasse, former Consular Officer in Hong Kong, who is here with us today, for doing the research and sending AFSA the information on the three older cases so that we might honor their sacrifices today.

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SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you very much, John. Let me thank all of you for being here, and particularly members of the Adkins family. This cannot be easy, and we understand that. But we want you to know that we are deeply touched by your son's loss, your brother's loss, your grandson's loss, your nephew's loss.

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We also commemorate three men who died long ago: Felix Russel Engdahl, U.S. Consul in Shanghai, who died in 1942 in a Japanese internment camp; Thomas Waldron, first U.S. Consul in Hong Kong, who died of cholera; Edmund Roberts, a special envoy sent by President Andrew Jackson to negotiate a treaty with Japan, who died of dysentery.

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