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Commanding is referring this matter to the Secretary of State for War, I submit the question for your consideration, and I should be also glad to receive instructions as to whether a proportion of the purchase money paid for the Mount Austin Hotel is to be defrayed from Colonial funds.
I have the honour to be Your Most Obedient Humble Servant William Robinson
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ENCLOSURE J
Minute by the Colonel Comdg. Royal Engineer.
The £30,000 paid for the Mt. Austin Hotel was not included in the Progress Report as that sum was paid in London. The 27.11.1. paid for fittings was included as chargeable also to the Military Works Loan under which we are working.
It is quite impossible for me to say how much of the money spent on the Mt. Austin Hotel is to be taken as chargeable to the approved schedule of Barrack Services in which the Colonial Government has a third share. Thus the Mt. Austin Hotel accommodation may be taken as superseding and avoiding the item of £10,000 for Barracks for one company Asiatic Artillery.
A large fraction of the £50,000 will be chargeable to Naval Estimates as going in aid of the accommodation required for the Troops turned out of North Barracks.
These are questions which can only be adjusted in London as between the three Secretaries of State concerned, when the precise rearrangement of the Garrison involved has been decided on and carried out.
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