368.
Hongkong.
Sir,
No. 21135
30603
Government House,
Hongkong, 18th October, 1904.
135
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch No. 223 dated the 23rd July, 1904, transmitting copies of correspondence with the War Office with regard to Military Reserves at Sywan Hill, and requesting me to furnish a full report on the matter.
2.
The earliest reference I can trace to any Military Property in this neighbourhood is contained in an answer to a question of the Hongkong Land Commission of 1886-1887 as to what property was held by the Military and Naval Authorities and what amount of land was prevented from being occupied by the action of the Military Authorities. This answer, embodied in a minute by Colonel A. J. Storer, R.E., dated the 17th February, 1887, was to the effect that in addition to about 337 acres held by the Military Authorities (of which a portion was undefined), there are restrictions on land being occupied for building purposes; the chief of these are at the Peak, Town Gun, Belcher's Point, Kowloon Peninsula, Lyemun, and Stonecutters' Island. The amount is undefined, it being the practice to ask the consent of the Military Authorities before permitting building rights to be acquired where they...
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
ALFRED LYTTELTON, K.C., M.P.
800
&C...
BCC.
may