T
OPY.
o. 1 in 6981/1907.
Sir,
II.
12330
200
Colonial Secretary's, Office,
Hongkong, 20th. March, 1912.
In reply to your letter of the 20th. March which has
been laid before the Officer Administering the Government, I am directed by His Excellency to inform you as follows:-
Para. 2. II B (ix). This proposal is not a new one. The transfer of an area from the south to the north of Salisbury Road was discussed by Mr. Chatham with ur. Osborne: it was clearly set
out in a minute by kur. Chatham dated the lyth. January and was concurred in by Sir F. Lugard. Subsequent negotiations with you were conducted by Ir. Pollock and Er. Stewart, who presumably went
through the proposals in Mr. Chatham's minute item by item to ascer-
-tain whether they were acceptable to you: and as no mention of
exception taken to this item was made in any communication received
from these gentlemen, the Government assumed that it had been agreed to by the Land Reclamation Company. If, however, Che Company is not
prepared to accept this additional area, the only course appears to be to eliminate i. from the proposed exchanges, leaving Salisbury
Road unchanged. This would entail the immediate payment by
Government to yourselves of a sum of $27,214.28 instead of
$432,618.40 and in the event of the transaction being completed by
a cash payment, the balance payable by Government to yourselves
will be reduced from $1,039,771.25 to 8945,175.25.
Para. 3.
His Excellency proposes that the Wharf and
Godown Company should be at liberty to remove the pontoon from the existing Star Ferry Pier provided that such removal is effected prior to the date of handling over the said pier to Government and that any damage to the pier caused by such removal is made good by
The Honourable
the
ar. C. H. Ross.