My Lord,
Hongkong, 18th November 1906.
I ask your consideration and intervention under the following circumstances.
I am a Chinese woman, the widow of Chan I Shan and through him the owner of Kowloon Farm Lots Nos. 8 and 4. Part of this land is required by your Government for the purposes of a railway. I wish to afford every assistance to this scheme and do not object to my land being taken, but I ask the Government to give me other land in the same locality in place of what is taken from me, area for area, and condition for condition. There are considerable areas of crown land near by on the new roads to Kowloon City. Instead of this your Government offer me 3 cents a foot for it; and if I do not accept this threaten to take away my land by law, and pay me what is decided by arbitration.
I will remind you that the land next to mine, the area of which is about 80,000 square feet and is a portion of Kowloon Farm Lot No. 9, was originally sold by my deceased husband to Tai Tse Hoo about 7 years ago, and was bought from Tai Tse Hoo by the Hon. Mr. Osborne for the Hongkong Hotel Co., a year ago at 45 cents a foot. On the 9th day of August 1904, your Government put up a piece of land adjoining to Kowloon Farm Lot No. 3 for sale by auction i.e. Kowloon Inland Lot No. 1157 area 78082 square feet and upset price was $21,924 i.e. 28 cents a square foot; the lease of my land, which is a Farm Lot, is 999 years; the lease of the land sold by auction though it is a building lot is only for 75 years. Moreover about 10 years ago your Government offered my deceased husband to convert part of this farm lot into a building lot at a yearly rental of $100 per acre without extra premium.
My deceased husband left repeated injunctions that the land should not be parted with. In obedience to my deceased husband's injunction I had no intention to sell it, but now on account of a railway for the sake of Public convenience, I am willing to take the land which is adjoining mine in exchange so as to make my deceased husband's land remain perpetually.
In order to avoid resuming the Hongkong Hotel Co's land, or paying the compensation demanded, the line of railway has been shifted so as to avoid their land, but mine is still required; this suggests to my mind that justice is not impartial.
I maintain that I have not been treated with justice and beg you to read the letter No. 333 from your Government, and particularly paragraph 4 threatening me to resume my land because buildings have been erected upon it. My Lord, plans were made for these larger buildings and submitted to your Government before they were built, and I have the official permits to proceed with them; the smaller ones occupied by farmers have recently been taken down; and for years rates have been levied upon all of them, for which I have the Government receipts; yet now that your Government want my land they say that they are illegal and threaten to take my land from me.
To The Right Honourable
The Secretary of State for the Colonies.
具禀者
...
一千九百零六年十一月十八日禀
CRAN MOON LAU SHI