NAVAL YARD
(Contd.)
777
Commander-in-Chief and the Commodore.
Subsequently these barracks were acquired by the Navy, and the Army took the former Mount Austin Hotel, ever since used as military barracks, on the Peak.
In March 1887 we first find the Kowloon shift mentioned, when the Governor addressed Admiral Hamilton on a proposal to exchange the Naval Yard land in Hong Kong for land of equal value in Kowloon.
Commodore Morant, it is interesting to note, recommended this transfer to Kowloon, adding that the Colonial Government should erect buildings in lieu of those vacated, and also pointing out that a good deal of the land in Kowloon was under water and would require reclamation. This suggestion was forwarded to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and a letter from Admiral Hamilton to the Governor in April 1887 mentions that he was forwarding the scheme to the Admiralty.
The Admiralty in June that year replied that they were not prepared to purchase the land, so that in January 1888, we have a letter from the Governor to Admiral Hamilton referring to the transfer to Kowloon as a project involving "ruinous expense" to the Colony.
The extension of the Hong Kong Praya across the present Naval Yard frontage was therefore revived, the Governor suggesting that the Colony bear half the cost of the scheme.
We shall see in a concluding article how the various proposals were dealt with.
We have seen how efforts were persistently made, from the Seventies onward, to obtain the Naval Yard site for city development schemes. Failing the removal of the establishment entirely to Causeway Bay or to a new site in Kowloon, it was proposed at least to continue the central Praya from near the Victoria Recreation Club site to Wanchai, thus forming a straight waterfront road past the seaward boundary of the Naval and Military property. This plan was revived by the Governor in the late Eighties, as mentioned in yesterday's articles, when a further effort to move the yard en bloc had been opposed.
The matter was referred to Admiral Salmon, who took over the command in February 1888, and who seemed favourable to the proposal and in fact recommended its adoption to the Admiralty. The Admiralty, however, in June 1889 indicated that they wished for further information in view of the possibility of the transfer of the yards to Kowloon!
This correspondence continued into 1890, when owing to Commodore Church having said he could not recommend the removal to Kowloon, the matter of the Praya extension across the waterfront also apparently fell through.
In writing to the Admiralty in March 1890, Admiral Salmon had indicated that the plan would probably come to nothing. He referred to the proposal, once more on the tapis, to move the Naval and Military establishments to Causeway Bay, which, incidentally, was regarded by the Navy as unsuitable but was favoured by the Military.
A considerable correspondence on the subject extended through 1890 into 1891, and it looked as if the Admiralty were for all these years avoiding the definite issue.