Th the Reply to this Letter the following
Number should be quoted.
16047
98
Sir,
Copa
C.O.
602
24378 Rec &
Ree? 31 OCT 98
613
TREASURY CHAMBERS,
Sq
October 1898,
The Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury desire me to enclose for the information of the Secretary of State for the Colonies a copy of a letter from the Admiralty of the 24th instant (with a plan in original to be returned) respecting the acquisition from the Government of Hong Kong of a strip of land required for the extension of the Naval Yard, or in other words for "Defensive purposes"
My Lords advert to the correspondence between this Department and the Colonial Office which resulted in the issue by the latter to various Colonies, including Hong Kong, of a Circular dated 30th December 1894, respecting the surrender of Colonial Military Lands, not wanted for Defensive purposes, to the Colonial Governments, on the understanding that, should other lands be subsequently re-
quired for such purposes, the Colonial Government concerned
would provide the same, up to the recorded value of the
Colonial Military Lands surrendered.
This arrangement was to be quite independent of
any general obligation that the Colonial Government might
be under to provide lands for Military purposes.
The land now in question does not seem to be
Colonial Military Land surrendered to the Colonial Govern--
ment, but to have been bought by that Government for $5,138,
in
he Under Secretary of State,
Colonial Office.