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APPENDIX.
:
-AC An e
Sir,
Despatch of Governor.
Government House, Hong Kong, September 27, 1899. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 153 of the 11th ultimo, with reference to the expenditure of the funds subscribed for a memorial of Her Majesty's Jubilee in 1897.
2. The money was placed in the hands of trustees, to be devoted--
(1.) To the construction of a road round the island.
(2.) The building of a hospital for women and children, and a nursing institute.
3. The plans for the hospital have been prepared, and the site acquired from the Govern- ment, and it is being proceeded with. The construction of the road has not been undertaken as yet for the following reasons:---
4. Immediately after my arrival in the Colony I was addressed by the Director of Public Works by a letter, dated the 29th November, 1898, in which he urged that some understanding should be arrived at with the Jubilee Committee on the subject of the Jubilec Road, about which there was a dead-lock, and suggested that the opinion of the Major-General, who had adminis- tered the Government previous to my arrival, should be asked for. The question at issue was whether the road was to be commenced at the west or the east of the island. The westernmost section from Kennedy Town to Aberbeen would absorb all the funds subscribed, while many more iniles could be made for that money round the east.
5. The trustees hold that they are bound by a Resolution that the money was to be devoted to the construction of a road round the island, the first section of which was to be from Kennedy Town to Aberdeen, round the western promontory of Mount Davis. The Government bound themselves to continue the road until its completion after the money subscribed was exhausted, and some of the money subscribed was so subscribed after the Resolution so binding the trustees had been published.
6. As previous Minutes showed that Major-General Black had, while administering the Government, expressed himself as opposed to this section on military grounds, I referred the question to him on that point, and received his answer, dated the 2nd December, 1898. It is to be regretted that Major-General Black did not urge this military objection when the proposition was made, or before the laying of the memorial stone at the point at which the road was to begin. by my predecessor, at which ceremony General Black was present.
7. However, a short time after the arrival of Major-General Gascoigne, I submitted the papers to him with a Minute, dated the 12th January, 1899, and on the 17th January I received his answer, in which he agreed with Major-General Black that a road round Mount Davis near the sea-level would be highly undesirable in a military sense.
8. As there is a considerable difference of opinion in the Colony as to the advisability of this road apart from the military aspect, I allowed the matter to rest in the hope that the trustees might see their way out of the difficulty by calling a meeting of the subscribers; but in the beginning of August I was informed that the Committee were preparing a statement to be sub- mitted to you, which statement I received a few days after the receipt of your despatch. As the opinions of Major-General Gascoigne and of the Director of Public Works were mentioned, I sent copies of the letter of the Committee to them for their observations. You will observe that Major General Gascoigne's views are materially modified, and his last Minute does not convey to me that there would be any serious military objection to the road.
9. Personally, as I have stated in my Minute, apart from military consideration, I see no reason why the road should not be first made in accordance with the resolution, especially as the Government is bound to continue the road until its completion round the island; but, as the question has been submitted to you, I think it better to forward with the letter of the Committee all the correspondence and Minutes* in the case, that you may have an opportunity of seeing it in all its bearings. And, as Major-General Gascoigne intimates the probability in his last Minute that the construction of the road may probably necessitate some alteration in the scheme of defence, you may consider it advisable to have the views of the Defence Committee on the subject. may add that the statement in the letter of the Committee as to the position of the proposed road and the extremely rugged character of the shore is quite correct.
I
I have, &c.
(Signed) HENRY A. BLAKE, Governor, &c.
The Right Honourable Joseph Chamberlain, M,P.,
&c.
&c.
&c.
* Only those letters and Minutes referring to the military aspect of the question have been printed.→→ (Secretary, C. D. C.)
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