128
}
Reserve Lands should be released from reservation.
As the Dock Company were under the impression that the correspondence relating to the land required for an extension of their premises, referred to the whole of the land coloured red and green on the plan enclosed in their letter above referred to, and decline to consider the purchase of the red portion alone, I have now to request that you will obtain the consent of the Secretary of State for War to the release from reservation of the portion coloured green. I presume that under the ruling contained in paragraph 4 of your Despatch under acknowledgment, this additional land must be valued on the same principle as has been laid down in enclosure 'P' to your Despatch, namely, that the value is to be the price paid by the Dock Company less a deduction for the value of the land as agricultural land.
I enclose a fresh copy of the plan referred to, and I shall be glad to learn the decision of the War Department in this matter by telegraph.
3.
I have further to draw your attention to the fact that in the remainder of the Military Reserve Land at Kowloon coloured blue on plan 'x', mentioned in Schedule 'A' to enclosure 'P' as to be given up by the War Department, is included the Naval and Association Range. This Range was granted to the Naval Authorities in 1873 over a length of 400 yards, on certain conditions, and in 1892 permission was given to extend the Range to a length of 900 yards; and the only rights the Military Authorities possess over it, are the rights of Military Exercise over the whole area in which it is comprised.
As