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The Colonial Office Circular Despatch of the 30th December, 1894, also refers to Colonial Military Crown Lands only; whereas as has been demonstrated Spring Gardens is, and ever since 1857 has been, Imperial and not Colonial Military Lands.
Spring Gardens and Mount Austin Barracks are held by the War Department each under a Crown Lease purchased from a private Crown Lessee, the only essential difference in the nature of the holding being that in the case of the former the Colonial Government have remitted the Crown Rent for so long as it remains War Department property while in the case of the latter the Crown Rent has been commuted and the amount of the commutation credited to the Colonial Government (page 2 statement of particulars).
It follows that the War Department on the one hand is at liberty to sell its interest in the Crown Lease of Spring Gardens to whomsoever it pleases subject to the rent and the terms and conditions of that lease. Paying the amount realized by a sale into the Imperial Treasury (paragraph 8 Memorandum in C.O. 9th June, 1890) and that the Colonial Government on the other hand is under no obligation either to purchase that interest or to accept a surrender of the Crown Lease;
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