Colonel Lovell be deprived by acceding to buy proposal.
23.
Putting aside the fact that the harbour department will only be deprived of what it never possessed, I believe that except for a few detached villas, with ample space between, there is no site in the gorge under the mountain fit for European Troops, because in all Hong Kong there is no place where they would be so completely shut out from all chance of ventilation and breeze during the S.W. Monsoon.
24. I do not however dwell on this for whether the ground be healthy or the reverse I believe the War Department has no property in it.
Page 382
and seeing that at Stanley, Kowloon and in the town of Victoria itself that Department already possesses far more extensive land than it is likely soon to occupy with Military Buildings, unless it is intended to quarter a small Army permanently at Kowloon and Hong Kong.
I do hope that the Colonial Government may be induced to entertain more reasonable views of the probable requirements of the Army.
Page 257
It is idle to expect that the Officer Commanding the Royal Engineers will do otherwise here than elsewhere, viz: regard it as a point of honor not to yield.
1