384
opposed to that of Sir F.Lugard. (I may add for your comfort
that much of the formidable enclosures to this despatch
is irrelevant).
Gov/11134/05
On the 7th of March 1905 the Governor of Hong
Kong wrote a confidential despatch in which he enclosed a
copy of a memorandum drawn up by Colonel Lewis, an officer
who, by arrangement between the Colonial Office and the
War Office, had been sent specially to the Colony to en-
deavour in consultation with the Governor and the local
military authorities to arrive at some settlement of the
questions at issue with regard to military lands in the
Colony. The Governor asked that Colonel Lewis's re- commendations should be accepted without modification and pointed out that the intricate questions connected with military lands and reserves which since 1883 had formed the subject of continued discussion had been comprehensive- ly dealt with on principles which should minimise the chance of similar difficulties arising in the future. The Secretary of State asked the War Office to accept the proposals which constituted a reasonable settlement of the questions which had been the subject of so much corres- pondence in the past. The War Office replied (W.0./26011/05) that the Army Council agreed to accept Colonel Lewis's re- commendations as a settlement of the matters in dispute. From this correspondence and from the terms of the Memoran- dum itself, it is clear that Colonel Lewis's mission was merely to settle existing disputes. I labour the point because it would appear that the present General Officer Commanding holds that the procedure laid down in the memo- randum was necessarily to govern all future cases of giving up land for military purposes.
Colonel Lewis laid down that the War Department's requirements as to land were of two kinds
(1) They might wish to exclude the public entirely
e.g. in the case of a battery and the land close
(x No. 10 in
Enclosure 1)
round it.
(2) They might wish to have a limited use of
lands, as in the case of training grounds, clearance
areas for guns to fire over, rifle ranges and the like.
Land in category (1) must belong entirely to the War
Department and must be disposed of in accordance with
the 1890 and 1894 circulars as to the disposal of
Colonial Military Lands.
Lands in category (2) should be held on a nominal rental by the War Office, the Government agreeing to keep it clear of buildings and other obstructions not approved by the War Department but the War Department would acquire
no vested interest in the land.
If it were desired to transfer land in category (2) to category (1), e.g. in order to build a barrack, it should be valued in the Open market (and the value recorded
in the Lands Account as provided by the Circulars).
In 1907 the War Department wished to acquire clearance rights over an area round Mount Davis and asked what would be the price of the land to be acquired in perpetual user, the price to be recorded in the Lands
Account. On learning the price the military authorities replied that they would have to get an independent valuation and if the parties could not then agree the procedure in paragraph 7 of the Circular of 30th December 1894 would have to be adopted. Probably they would simply take the area as a reserve (i.e. as land in category (2) of the Lewis Memorandum) and pay building value for sites actually built on.
X
To this Sir F.H.May replied in his letter of 9th December 1907 pointing out that the question of the circular did not arise as it dealt solely with what
was
round