Colonial Office (No. 18100/95) to the Under Secretary of State for War, referred to in Your Excellency's letter under reply. I have …
(Sd). W. Robinson
Governor.
Enclosure 2.
C.O.
22486
RECO
Pa 3 OCT 36)
Minute by the Acting Attorney General,
612
The point concerning which my opinion is desired is whether or not the lots of land included in what are ordinarily known as the Kowloon Military Reserves come within the phrase Colonial Military Lands used in the Marquis of Ripon's despatch of the 30th of December/September 1894, so as to justify the General Officer Commanding in his request to be furnished with a statement showing the value of certain land at Kowloon Peninsula lately included in the Military Reserves.
I will proceed to indicate as briefly as I can the various stages through which the Military Reserve Question has passed, commencing from the year 1883 when the question first came into prominence. In the letter from the War Office to the Colonial Office dated 15th May 1888, (see C.O.109 of 1883) the following passages occur:-
"With reference to your letter dated 2nd January 1883 forwarding for the consideration of the Secretary of State for War a copy of a despatch from the Governor of Hong Kong suggesting that the Kowloon Garden Leases of 14 years should be exchanged on certain conditions for rural building leases for 75 years I am directed by the Secretary of State for War to acquaint you that in the reports of the Local Defence Committee it is recommended that the space between the dotted red …"