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[This Document is the Property of Her Britannic Majesty's Government.]
SECRET.
No. 209 M.
Printed for the use of the Colonial Office. March 16, 1900.
30
75
HONG KONG 5.
W.O. No.
301
HONG KONG.
Proposed New Roads.
Memorandum by the Colonial Defence Committee.
THE War Office have referred to the Colonial Defence Committee a letter from the General Officer Commanding in China, dated the 16th December, 1899, on the subject of two roads which he considers would greatly strengthen the defence of Hong Kong against an enemy that had effected a landing on the south shore of the island. One of these roads is to connect Wan-Chai and Wong-nei-Chong Gaps round the southern slopes of Mount Cameron and Mount Nicholson generally at a level of 800 feet above the sea. The other is to pass to the south of Victoria Peak and to connect the tramway station at Victoria Gap with the saddle between Victoria Peak and High West, and to be continued round High West approximately at a level of 1,200 feet above the sea. The letter of the General Officer Commanding is printed as an Appendix to this Memorandum.
2. Both the roads now proposed were considered by the Colonial Defence Committee in connection with the Defence Scheme for Hong Kong revised to June, 1897, and were dealt with in paragraph 3 of their Remarks, No. 172 Ř, on that Scheme in the following terms :—
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"3. The War Office have also referred to the Colonial Defence Committee for consideration, in connection with the Defence Scheme, a letter from the General Officer Commanding, dated the 18th August, 1897, on the subject of the construction of a road between Wan-Chai and Wong-nei-Chong Gaps, at the expense of the Colony, in exchange for certain W.D. rights over land at Mounts Nicholson and Cameron. The General Officer Commanding looks upon the proposed road as of vital and paramount importance to any proper defence of the south side of Hong Kong;' and the Commanding Royal Engineer in his Memorandum, referred to in the preceding paragraph of these Remarks, explains in full the purpose for which the road is required. This is not so much to provide communication between the two gaps, which could better be furnished by roads in rear of the Mounts, as to give access to positions from which the most probable lines of an enemy's advance from the south shore can be swept with artillery, machine gun, and infantry fire.
"It appears to the Colonial Defence Committee that the General Officer Commanding somewhat over-estimates the value of the proposed road, for the reasons already stated in the W.O. letter to him, dated the 9th June, 1897 (Hong Kong/5/9985/97). In view, however, of the strong opinions expressed by officers who have carefully studied the question on the ground, and in view of the fact that the possession of rights over the tops of Mounts Cameron and Nicholson appears on the whole to be less of a military advantage than the facilities for observing and firing over the slopes of these hills, which would be given by the proposed road, the Committee concur in the recommendation of the General Officer Commanding, and suggest that the W.O. should communicate with the Colonial Office on the subject of the construction of the road by the Colonial Government. They would observe that, if the road is
[389]
B
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