3. As to enquiry (2), the increase to the garrison is accommodated partly in hired buildings, partly in temporary mat sheds provided by a contractor, for an annual payment, and partly on the Lodging List, whilst some of the barracks are, in addition, overcrowded.
4. All the new buildings will be in addition to the existing barracks, none of which require to be replaced by others.
5. As to enquiry (3), the Secretary of State for War cannot say certainly, at present, and it is a matter in regard to which the General Officer Commanding could best inform the Governor of the Colony.
6. As far as the information at the disposal of the Secretary of State goes, it is not likely that any sites, in addition to those already occupied by the War Department, will be required, in order to carry out the programme for barrack accommodation communicated to you, with the exception of a site for a barrack for a company of Asiatic Artillery, and for a musketry detachment.
7. As to enquiry (4), no old buildings and no barrack sites will be available for surrender to the Colony in consequence of the completion of the new barracks.
There will, however, probably be some sites to surrender not occupied by barracks, such as Murray Battery and possibly others, but there is not sufficient information at present to enable the Secretary of State for War to specify them.
8. As to enquiry (5), the accompanying copy of a Return, marked "A," gives the required information.
9. As to the concluding paragraph of your letter under reply, I am to observe that, as pointed out in the Treasury letter* of the 19th August, 1893, which accompanied the War Office letter of the 19th October last, your department and the Colony have long been aware that some proportion of the cost of the new barracks would be asked for from the Colony, but from various causes, some of them in connection with the proposed Praya scheme, it has not been practicable to form a fairly correct scheme of requirements at an earlier date.
10. As to the amount of expenditure which will fall on the Colony, I am to observe that contracts for building in Hong Kong are made in dollars, and that the purchasing power of silver with regard to local labour and materials has so far not fallen so much as it has with respect to gold.
11. I am to add that the burden on the Colony would consequently be more correctly expressed in dollars than in sterling, and with less chance of misconception.
RALPH THOMPSON,
No. of Item in Estimate accompanying Hong Kong 4568 Description of Service Authorized Expended Completed In hand 1 Barracks for Hong Kong Regiment at Kowloon, exclusive of European Officers' quarters £574 Completed 4 Barracks for Royal Artillery at Lyemoon £9,082 £17 In hand 5 Purchase of Lazaretto £3,167 6 Barracks for Royal Artillery at Stonecutter's Island £5,408 In hand 14 Royal Engineer workshops (part of) £150 Completed 13 Valuation of War Department property £5,408 Authorized and in hand Contingencies £50 £11 Total expenditure up to 30th June, 1893 £18,431No. 10.
Colonial Office to War Office.
Downing Street,
15th May, 1894.
I am directed by the Marquis of Ripon to request you to inform Mr. Secretary Campbell-Bannerman, that his Lordship deferred answering your Hong Kong 2 letter,* of 12th February last, on the subject of additional barrack accommodation for the garrison at Hong Kong, in anticipation that he would shortly receive a letter from the Treasury, giving a memorandum of the conclusions arrived at by the conference held in December last, on the question of the surrender of military lands in the Colonies.
2. That memorandum has now been received from the Treasury; but until it is known what are the exact sites which are required for the accommodation of the Asiatic Artillery and of the musketry detachment, and what these sites will cost, if they are not Crown land, or if they are Crown land, what is their value, to be credited to the Colony, as against the value of Murray Battery, &c., for which the War Office will claim credit (when those sites are surrendered to the Colony), his Lordship is unable to estimate what will be the gross or net cost of the new barracks, and is not in a position to consider what proportion of the cost the Colony can afford to pay.
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