7
י
CONFIDENTIAL.
R
NE
43494
RE! SEP 20
23
HONGKONG.
GOVERNMENT HOUSE.
17th July, 1920.
24586
My Lord,
11:250.
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt
of Your Lordship's despatch No.91 of the 13th March, 1920, on the subject of the overpayment by this Colony of Military Contribution in respect of the financial years 1917/18 and
1918/19.
2.
I have the honour to invite reference to my
despatch No.104 of the 23rd March, 1920, in which I asked
that the re-arrangement of the military lands in the Colony
might be treated as a matter of urgency; and I suggest that this question of the refund of military contribution should
be considered in this connection. It is doubtful whether the
Army Council fully realise how vitally important this ques-
tion of lands is to the Colony. The peculiar formation of
Hongkong, with its steep hills going down abruptly to the water's edge, affords hardly any level sites, and practically
the whole of the town is built either on reclaimed land or on
land levelled to supply spoil for reclamation or on areas
terraced out of the hill-sides. The rocky nature of the soil, combined with the steepness of the slopes, makes the cost of building very high in any case, and as all the central sites are developed to their utmost capacity, and in many cases at
an expense which would be incredible elsewhere, housing and business accommodation has to be sought ever further and
further
RIGHT HONOURABLE
VISCOUNT MILNER, G.C.B.,
&c.,
&C..
&c.