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Enclosure 2.
(826 16 JUL 17
General Officer Commanding to Governor of Hong Kong.
Sir,
Headquarter Office,
Hong Kong 5th. July 1897.
In answer to Your Excellency's request I have the honour
to report upon the Petition of some of the European and American
inhabitants against the acquisition of Mount Austin Hotel by the
War Department.
I venture to say that there is no general feeling in the
Colony against the sale to the War Department; many of the inhabi-
tants ridicule the idea of the signatories being able to affect a
legitimate sale of a property which has been in the market for the
last two years.
2.
Those principally aggrieved are dwellers in the
Hotel, who very naturally regret being turned out of their rooms; and many other signatories take I think an erroneous view of inconveniences that they imagine may result from the quartering of soldiers on the Peak. Soldiers there, far from the influence of slums and drinking shops, will behave as other peaceful citizens.