C
"These, then, ze the arrangements which will ford the basis of
the proposals which 11 be put before the Legislative Council during.
the next budget sess: n for Council's formal cons..deration - £5.m. to
cover everything, ca-tal and recurrent, subject to one point I ́shall
have to make in what I shall say next.
*
"Now let me turn back to the other agreement which I said had been
reached. This concerns the land holdings of the armed services. Here,
again, in the short space of this talk, I must try to simplify a complex
subject: but broadly it has been agreed that any land held by the armed
services, other than and bought on the open market, will be returned
freely to the Hong Kong Government, without any question of a charge for
it arising, as soon as it is no longer required for purposes in connection
with the defence of the Colony. Equally, we will provide land free, when'
we agree it is needed. If in future we require any particular piece of
land badly, then we may have to rebuild elsewhere, at our cost, any
essential military installations that are on it; but this of course will
be largely under our control and the new buildings will be ours; we will
have to weigh the pros and cons ourselves in each case; but, I repeat, the
land will come back freely. This agreement means that there will not in
future be any more transactions like the one over the Neval Dockyard lend;
and, moreover, a book debt owing to the Ministry of Defence cver past
Jand transactions amounting to about $10 m., has been expunged.
1....