of income from the tax on opium. To make up for the loss, the British governor suggested taxing the people's incomes. The main group that would be affected by this tax would be the merchants. Therefore, the European and Asian merchants opposed this, and opium was not banned, although heavier taxes on opium were imposed. Lim has created an officer of the Order of the British Empire on 12 March 1918 (backdated to 1 January 1918) for his services as an Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council of the Straits Settlements. Together with Lim Nee Soon, Lim co-founded OAC Insurance in 1920. OAC was the first locally owned insurance company to be set up in Singapore. The following year in June, upon the request of Sun Yat-sen, Lim served as the second president of Xiamen University, until the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in July 1937. The university was founded by Lim's friend, Tan Kah Kee. Lim later went into banking, and co-founded the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC). As the president of Xiamen University, Lim published his own English translation of the Chinese poem Li Sao, also known as An Elegy on Encountering Sorrows. In 1937, Lim founded the Straits Chinese China Relief Fund Committee of Singapore to support China in its war efforts against Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Personal life Lim married Margaret Wong Tuan-Keng (), the eldest daughter of Sibu pioneer Wong Nai Siong, in 1896 at a Presbyterian church. They had four sons, Robert Lim Kho-Seng, Francis Lim Kho-Beng, Walter Lim Kho-Leng, and John Lim Kho-Liau. Wong died in 1905 and was buried at Bukit Brown Cemetery. Lim remarried in 1908, to Grace Yin () the sister of S.C. Yin with whom he shared a medical practice. They had one son, Lim Peng Han, who later became a race car driver and the first Chinese person to race in Brooklands in the United Kingdom. They also had a daughter, Ena Lim Guat-Kheng. Lim also had another son, George Lim Peng Thiam, with Chui Geok, the niece of his second wife. President of OCA In 1942, Lim's family were interned at a Japanese concentration camp at Arab Street. Lim was asked by the Japanese to become the leader of the Overseas Chinese Association (OCA). In response, Lim refused, claiming that he was too old to take up the role of president. Lim's wife was then