The object of this enquiry arises from a War Office letter stating that in the amount sanctioned in the current year for the further purchase of private buildings within the Military Cantonments the sum of £8714 for the sale of Brooke Cottage has been appropriated in aid of the said purchase.
Now it will be impossible to realize so large a sum, unless the property is sold as soon as proposed and the Major General trusts that this will not be found incompatible with the interests of the public.
I have to...
(Signed) W.F. Dundonald Cochrane,
Major,
Acting Assistant Military Secretary.
Enclosure 2.
525
Acting Colonial Secretary to Acting Assistant Military Secretary.
(Copy.) 4940.
Sir,
Colonial Secretary's Office,
Hongkong, 18th June 1886,
In reply to your letter No.924 of the 7th instant, I am directed by His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government to request you to inform the Officer Commanding the troops that, in the opinion of the Government, there would be an objection to Inland Lot 101, Brooke Cottage, being divided into two lots for purposes of sale, with the view of the Staunton Street frontage being sold for the creation of Chinese Houses.
Under instructions from the Secretary of State, no Chinese houses are to be permitted to be built on land in this part of the town without the previous sanction of...
(Signed)
Acting Assistant Military Secretary