Joint Committee therein referred to, pending the settlement of the above scheme as there are many questions unaffected by that scheme, which that Committee may continue to discuss, such as:
(a) The expediting the removal of the proposed line of Defence of the Kowloon Peninsula from the site at present fixed for it, to a line close to the frontier, by which all the difficulties caused by encroachments on Military Reserves may be settled, and much valuable land not yet built upon set free for that purpose.
(b) Questions relative to the War Department property at Stone Cutters Island, Lyemun and the neighbourhood of Belcher's Battery in connection with Barracks which it is contemplated to build there.
(c) The defence of the Hill District against attacks from the South and the reservations required in connection therewith.
As regards the proposal to remove the Military Establishments to Causeway Bay, it appears to me that the scheme would be advantageous from a Military point of view if the following conditions can be fulfilled, viz:
That the complete area, which may be roughly described as bounded by Causeway Bay on the West, Quarry Bay and the Sanitarium on the East, the Lea on the North and the crest of the hills on the South, be given up unreservedly for Military occupation, thus affording ample room for exercise and manoeuvre.
That this area be completely drained so as to prevent...