About a year after he resigned as High Commissioner of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, Lugard was appointed as Governor of Hong Kong,[2] a position he held until March 1912. During his tenure, Lugard proposed to return Weihaiwei to the Chinese government, in return for the ceding of the rented New Territories in perpetuity. However, the proposal received less than warm receptions, and it was not acted upon. Some believed that if the proposal was acted on, Hong Kong might forever remain in British hands.