Judged without cost to the War Office. You are to add that it is not proposed to press against the Colony on account of any claim for the cost of trying to ascertain the owners.
2. In reply, I am to request you to call the attention of Mr. Secretary Brodrick to the fact that the Chamberlain has consented to this proposal; and I am to draw attention to the letter from this Office of the 23rd May last, and especially to paragraph four, which it was pointed out that "no general liability on the part of Her Majesty to provide land free of cost had ever been admitted."
I am to add that in the letter from this Department of the 16th August, 1899, it was definitely stated that land that might be required for military purposes would be furnished by the Colonial Government under the Crown Lands Resumption Ordinance, 1889, and handed over to the War Department according to such conditions as may be agreed upon in consequence of the recent inter-departmental Committee on the provision of sites for Her Majesty's military establishments.
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