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will become increasingly serious.
22.
The situation has become somewhat more
complicated by the fact that documents relating to the
resumption of land in New Kowloon in 1925 have recently
come to light. At that time the description of what was
happening in Kowloon was similar to the development taking
place in the New Territories to-day. The Governor wrote
"district development has been taking place on an unprecedented
scale. Hills are being levelled, valleys raised, roads
driven, water courses diverted and trained, drainage laid,
and hugh reclamations are being made, all of which work is
costing an enormous sum of money.
23.
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Arising from this the petition was made to the
Secretary of State in which reference was made to the Con-
vention and to the terms of the lock Crown Lease. The then
Secretary of State was disposed to accept certain of the
views put forward by the petitioners.
"I find great
difficulty in agreeing with Sir R.E. Stubbs that the
compulsory purchase of land is not expropriation" or that
town planning, carried on in the way which he describes, is
an official purpose within the meaning of the Convention;
and later 'It appears to me possible that if the Government
of Hong Kong were to adopt a fairer and more generous
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