Tams 1898.

441

the chances would be that bidding would considerably raise

the price.

9. A plan of the site of Gun Club Hill and of

the adjoining sites with the value of the sites marked there-

on is attached.

10. I observe that at the end of the second

memo.of 10th. June, Colonel Elsdale writes the officers of the

* Colonial Government have made no distinction between the terms

"of purchase of lands within the Military Reserves and lands

"not within the Military Reserves.

#

This Government does not admit that the fact

that land is within the Military Reserves is a reason for

making any distinction in the terms of purchase.

If Colonel Elsdale does not mean that Gun Club

Hill is within the Military Reserves at Kowloon, there was no

need to make the statement referred to.

As a fact Gun Club Hill is not within any Mi-

litary Reserve, and is not marked as being within them on the

plans in the Public Works Department furnished by the local Military Authorities. The purchase of this land must therefore be on the lines of purchase followed in the case of lands

lying outside Military Reserves.

11. Should however my information about the

status of the Gun Club Hill site be incorrect (though I think that the enclosed memo.by Mr.Ormsby shows that I am correct), what are the grounds on which the Military Authorities argue that lands within Military Reserves should be treated in a different

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