Sir,
Hongkong & Whampoa Dock Co. Ltd.
Hongkong, 11th June 1901.
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter No.1352 of 8th instant, enclosing copy of a letter from Admiral Sir E.B. Seymour to the Secretary of the Admiralty respecting the claims of His Majesty's Ships to preferential rights of docking.
The preferential rights of docking H.M.'s Ships as modified by Admiral Seymour, and detailed in his letter of 20th May, 1901, are quite acceptable to my Company, and I beg you to convey to His Excellency the thanks of my Directors for his consideration.
As you are aware, my Company is most desirous of proceeding at once with the construction of a new dock at Hunghom, and if the ground coloured red and green in the accompanying plan cannot be granted to us as an extension of Kowloon M.L. 87, I shall feel much obliged if you will at once have it put up to Public Auction in one lot, and my Company is agreeable to take it upon the following terms and conditions:-
The Hon. T. Sercombe Smith, Acting Colonial Secretary.