Hong Kong-Lands required for Military Purposes.
REPORT OF CONFERENCE,
Members.
Colonel C. M. WATSON, C.M.G., R.E., War Office.
Mr. R. CHALMERS, Treasury.
Mr. G. W. JOHNSON, Colonial Office.
Mr. A. H. B. ALLEN, War Office, Secretary.
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The Conference consider it advisable to preface their recommendations with a resumé of the chief facts of the present situation, and of the history leading up to it.
1. The Colony of Hong Kong at present pays a general military contribution of 17 per cent of its revenue. This has produced in recent years £42,000 or £43,000 a year, a sum which may be taken roughly as representing about one-sixth of the total cost of the garrison, exclusive of capital expenditure on land and buildings. This contribution is held to be a return for all military expenditure in the Colony, including repair and maintenance of buildings and new works, costing less than £100, but does not cover the provision of lands or of works costing £100 or more. Separate arrangements have to be made with regard to a contribution in respect of these. The history of these arrangements begins for present purposes in 1888. In discussing the question of land, it should be kept in mind that on the cession of the territory by China, the whole of the land was reserved to the Crown as represented by the Colonial Government, and they have only granted leases to individuals, subject generally to a Crown rent, there being, therefore, no such thing as absolute private ownership of land in the Colony.
2. In 1888, at the time when a large increase in the garrison of Hong Kong was decided on, the Committee on Colonial Military Contributions made the following recommendation with regard to barracks for the increased garrison, viz., if the War Office, as was then proposed, surrendered to the Colony certain lands in the city of Victoria, the value of these should be devoted by the Colony to reduce the cost of the new barracks (including that of reproviding the accommodation given up), and that the remainder of the cost should be divided in the proportion of one-third against Colonial and two-thirds against Imperial revenues, the Colony, in addition, finding the necessary sites for the buildings. The Committee recorded their opinion that, as a rule, the Colony should provide sites for military purposes free of cost to the Imperial Government, and that when sites assigned for military purposes ceased to be useful for such purposes, they should be immediately surrendered to the Colonial Government.
50-11900-(3483)-813wo