Welcome by The President ESU (HK), Sir David Akers-Jones, KBE, CMG, GBM, JP

It is a great privilege to be invited to become President of the English-Speaking Union Hong Kong and to follow in the footsteps of such a distinguished predecessor.

Spoken English is uniting more and more people in its global reach and so it is apposite after studying at Oxford the origins and development of the language before the death of Chaucer that, sixty years later, I should find myself chosen for this position, one of Chaucer's pilgrims, on the doorstep of China many thousands of miles from home. Just how much further will his language travel?

David Akers-Jones