SIR,
ENCLOSURE 6.
C.O.
568
Hongkong, 20th June, 1901.
AUG OF
1
In reply to your letter No. 1,380 of the 12th instant, with which, by direction of His Excellency the Governor, you forwarded to me copies of reports by Commodore Powell and Mr. Ordish on my proposals for the removal of the Naval Establishments from their present position in the centre of the city to Kowloon, and in which you asked me to forward, for the information of His Excellency, any observations I might have to make on these reports, I have now to submit, for the consideration of Sir Henry Blake, certain criticisms and remarks on these reports which, after consultation with my professional adviser, Mr. Wm. Danby, M. Inst. C.E., and after full inquiry, I think will be found relevant and worthy of consideration.
The Commodore's report appears to be distinctly favourable. He accepts my proposals in principle and recognizes to the fullest extent the advantages to arise from the concentration of the whole of the Naval Establishments at Kowloon. He further admits the disadvantageous nature of the present site with its divided area and lack of room for further expansion. His chief objection to the Kowloon site is based upon what I believe to be an erroneous idea as to the amount of dredging that will have to be undertaken to clear the front of the new Naval Yard and to the probability that continuous dredging will be required to keep the water at the same depth and prevent silting up.
In my comments on Mr. Ordish's report I deal fully with this question. I am assured that the initial cost of dredging will be by no means so great, and I feel assured, from the information given me and from my own knowledge of the ground, that continuous dredging will not be required. In the fifty years since the earliest charts of the Harbour were made, the depths along that part of the Kowloon shore are practically the same, as will be seen on reference to the Admiralty chart of 1845 and that of 1894.
The Commodore further calls attention to the openness of the proposed site to westerly winds and to the effects of the typhoon in November last. He also refers to the insufficiency of the water supply at Kowloon,
This latter defect I admit, but a remedy is now in course of being applied, and in a much shorter period than it will take to transfer the Naval Yard to Kowloon that deficiency will have been amply supplied, and Kowloon will luxuriate in even a more abundant supply than is now attainable in Hongkong.
As to the exposed nature of the site, there is no portion of the harbour that may not at some time be exposed to the violence of wind and sea.
All depends upon the precise direction from which a typhoon approaches the Colony and upon the nearness at which it passes, but I feel sure that, upon an examination of the records for the last sixty years, it will be found that far more and more severe assaults have been made by storms on the present Man-of-War Anchorage and upon the present Naval Establishments than on any portion of the Western side of Kowloon. Only thrice in 10 years has a typhoon passed near the Colony on such a course that the strength of the wind has been felt on the Yau-Ma-Ti side. The great majority of typhoons develop the greatest force of the wind from North-East and East and work round to South-East and South, from which directions the West side of Kowloon is perfectly sheltered. In all the severe typhoons, especially in that of September, 1874, the greater portion of the loss and damage suffered has always been along the North-Eastern face of the city and about the present Man-of-war Anchorage. The waters to the West of the Kowloon Peninsula have always been the typhoon anchorage and the recognised place of refuge for craft of all sizes. For many years the Princess Charlotte and the Victor Emanuel and the gunboats were moved in May or June from the Hongkong side, and remained during the whole of the typhoon season under the shelter of Kowloon. No place is absolutely safe, but the safest has always been that portion of the harbour North of an East and West line through Kowloon Point and West of that peninsula.
As to the Commodore's requirements for the creation or preservation of a reservation for Europeans to the East of the proposed Naval Yard site on the other side, to prevent the possibility of the Naval Establishment being too closely surrounded by Chinese and Chinese habitations, and to permit of the European employés being comfortably housed, there can be little difficulty in providing for