for litigation between the Petitioners and the Crown, and the letter concluded as follows: "It is, however, open to Messrs Stephens Howard, "to present a Petition to His Majesty asking "for Relief in the circumstances in which "they are placed.
Those circumstances are that our Marine Lot held under Crown lease was destroyed as a Marine Lot by the Praya Reclamation made in front of it for a public purpose, and the amount awarded by the Acting Governor of Hong Kong was evidently by some mistake or accident (we were not heard in the matter) totally inadequate Award, but against which we had no legal remedy, as we learned after litigation extending over several years that His Majesty's Courts had no jurisdiction over an Executive Officer of the Government, and our remedy, understood from your Office letter of the 14th April last, was that of presenting Petition to His Majesty, which we did, praying for Relief under the circumstances of our case set out in the Petition. We naturally considered that the result of the correspondence between the Secretary of State and the Colonial Department was that the Relief sought by our Petition would be granted as a matter of right and justice to us when asked for in the manner indicated.
The Relief has not, however, yet been granted and no reason given for withholding it, nor any information given to us whether the Award was arrived at after examination of the facts or not, and we have only come to the conclusion that further information has been requested from the Colonial Government to enable His Majesty's Ministers to decide what the measure of the Relief shall be.
In that belief, and as the matter is of great importance, we desire to bring to your notice the salient points of this case so far as they affect us as His Majesty's Crown Lessees.
The case was decided against us on a point of law, and the facts have not been heard by the Courts.
1. Governor Sir William des Vœux, in a letter to the Honble C. J. Chater, in the Colonial Secretary's letter of the 23rd June 1888, wrote as follows:- "The Foreshore belongs to the "Crown, and to the Crown alone belongs the right of Reclamation and of ownership in "the land reclaimed, the only obligation "attaching to the latter being that of compensating the frontage owner for the "difference if any between the value of his Marine Lot and the value of the same "land converted into an Inland Lot by the Reclamation in front of it."
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