8. The Peak, as it exists at present, is the outcome of many years of enterprise and hard work on the part of the civil population, who have developed it, alone and unaided, at immense trouble and expense for the purpose of enjoying quietly, after the toils of the day are over, private and family life.
9. is the only place where such a condition is possible, and we submit with all due respect that no sufficient reason exists for the introduction of barracks into the very midst of what is the most popular residential quarter of the Colony.
10. We would also beg leave to point out that, whereas the average stay of a Regiment here is something under three years, the ordinary members of the civil community are frequently obliged to remain from twenty-five to thirty years, and in many cases a lifetime.
11. We specially draw notice to the fact that for some years past no new houses have been allowed to be constructed in the Pok-fu-lam watershed area, and we submit that it is most undesirable that the settlement of 400 men just above the reservoir should be contemplated.
12. Whatever rules and regulations may be laid down, it seems highly probable that a considerable amount of insanitary matter will find its way into the reservoir, as for many months in the year the troops will naturally roam over the hills and valleys adjoining for both exercise and recreation.
13. Such a danger does not, we submit, exist in the case of the present Hotel, the residents of which are much fewer than the number of troops which it is proposed to quarter there, and are most of them engaged daily below in the pursuit of their various avocations.
14. If barracks, as is rumoured, are also to be constructed at High West, the danger we refer to will be further augmented.
15. In this connection it should be borne in mind that for residents and many who live to the West in Hong Kong, the Pok-to-lum reservoir forms their only water supply.
16. We would therefore respectfully urge that all possible risk of contamination to our water supply should be avoided.
17. As regards the Mount Austin Hotel, as there is only one narrow road with the very steep gradient of about one in three leading to it, it will be arduous for soldiers to find their way up from the lower level of Victoria on foot, and in the event of bodies of men being transported by the tram cars (which can only legally carry 40 passengers at a time) the dislocation of the ordinary traffic will be a serious inconvenience to all ordinary passengers, who will thereby be deprived of the car service.
18. We would also respectfully urge that the narrowness of the existing roads at the Peak does not lend itself to the free movement of even moderately large bodies of troops without causing much inconvenience to the ordinary passengers.
19. Sites, if not quite at such an altitude but equally good apparently from a strategic point of view, and more conveniently situated for the purposes of exercise and recreation on the part of the soldiers can be found along the chain of hills to the eastward.
20. Mount Cameron, Caroline Hill, and the slopes above Causeway Bay appear very suitable sites for Barracks.
21. We would submit that the sites above suggested are more central, more easy of access, and that they are within easy reach of the Happy Valley and Causeway Bay, the only open spaces large enough for military exercises in the Colony.
22. The time has surely now come for the Imperial Government to formulate such a comprehensive scheme as will give adequate accommodation to the troops on this station, and this can be easily obtained in the localities already referred to, which are sufficiently high up to be cool and salubrious.
23. On the one hand it is a comparatively simple matter for the Military Authorities, who have large means at their disposal and an almost unlimited choice of sites, to open up a new district. On the other hand it is a very difficult, slow and expensive process for civilians, who move one by one, to develop a new locality, and if a section of the community is driven below by the Military occupation of a place of large public resort at the Peak, an undesirable check will be placed upon the development and progress of the high level life of the Colony.
24. In conclusion we would point out that the loss of the Hotel entails a considerable loss of public income, as the taxes on the property, amounting to several thousands of dollars per annum, will be lost to the Colonial Revenue. We would also beg leave to most respectfully urge that inasmuch as the ratepayers of this Colony have been called upon to contribute one-third of the cost of the expenditure of the Military Authorities upon barracks, some consideration should fairly and reasonably be shown to the wishes and appeal of the civil portion of the community.
25. We therefore pray Your Excellency to intervene in our behalf with the War Department and to lay before the Military Authorities the objections which we have sketched above against the conversion of the Mount Austin Hotel into Barracks, and to ask them whether they would be willing to sell the building to a Public Company which would continue to manage it as an Hotel; and if so to give a respite of one month to the Colonists wherein to endeavour to raise the capital necessary for such purchase.
D. Gillies
V.A. Caesar Drawkinu.
R. M. Gray Skury
E. Sollock
J. H. V. Vernon
I. St. Whitehead. Jus. J. Francis
G. Stewart
W. H. Ray
C. S. Sharp
J. Grange
R. M. Moses
Anthony Babbington
N. G. Evans R. H. Leigh Saccun A lov
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