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report required by His Excellency as to the absolute necessity for the occupation of
His Excellency furnished me with a Memorandum to read to Colonel Mann shewing the necessity for
and that the semi-official procedure adopted with a view to the prevention of delay. Colonel Mann having communicated with the General, Sir Hope Grant wrote on the 16th instant to His Excellency repeating that any queries I might require from the Commanding Royal Engineer would not affect the question, he being the proper judge of the area and accommodation wanted for the additional troops proposed to be quartered there, the number however being then reduced from 300 to 200.
Under the above circumstances, and not having obtained the necessary information, especially as to the present occupation of the extensive area, and the number and size of the sheds proposed for the additional men, my report must necessarily be more incomplete than I desire, or His Excellency has demanded.
In my previous letter to your address upon the unauthorised occupation of this Range, I intimated my conviction that if permitted it would eventuate in complications affecting the permanent appropriation of Kowloon; these it was most desirable to avoid, not only on general grounds, but as the area in question was one specially referred to in the report of the Mixed Commission it should, in my opinion, be kept vacant until the decision of Her Majesty's Government could be obtained.
It is remarkable that Nap'sin Range, of all other places in the Peninsula, should have