Duddell's right to compel this Government to complete the resumption of Mr. Duddell's land and pay the price fixed by the Surveyor General at the time of resumption, viz: $32,500.
2. The opinions of such eminent legal practitioners must set at rest the questions referred to them, although his Government has received a somewhat unexpected lesson in learning that Mr. Duddell can legally compel completion of a bargain, which had been abandoned in consequence of the remonstrances of Mr. Duddell himself.
3. I have also to acknowledge receipt of Your Lordship's Telegram of the 30th December from Galle, informing me that Mr. Duddell proposed to take repossession of the land on payment of £3000, or £8600, meaning, I presume, to give possession of the land for £8,600 - a sum meant to cover interest and expenses calculated on some scale.
4. I may remind Your Lordships that the original notice of resumption had been given for the purpose of securing the site recommended by the principal medical officers - Civil, Naval, and Military - for a large Hospital in lieu of the existing Civil Hospital, the whole of which would have been required for a Lock Hospital, if Her Majesty's Government had persisted in the scheme for examining all women in Chinese, as well as Foreign brothels.
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