SCHEME
Tel. No. XXNXXXWhitehall 9400.
Any further communication on this
subject should be addressed to:-
The Under-Secretary of State,
The War Office,
London, S.W. 1,
and the following number quoted.
118/Abroad/796 (D.1.1.
a.)
NATIONAL
FOR
Sir,
# 1
THE WAR OFFICE,
LONDON, S.W. 1.
16 December, 1932.
30
23.
15€
With reference to your letter of 12th November, and previous correspondence under your number 92608/32, relative to the Aerial Ropeway between the Military Magazines and the sea front at Hong Kong, I am commanded by the Army Council to state that it is noted that the Colonial Government are reported to be anxious to expedite the surrender of the Naval Arsenal Yard and the removal of the ropeway, and have asked that the matter may be settled not later than 1st January next.
It is not clear to the Council, however, that the matter is of such immediate urgency as this request would appear to indicate. It is understood that the accommodation to be provided for the Admiralty on Stonecutters Island may not be completed before 1934 or possibly 1935, and that until it is ready for occupation, the Navy must necessarily continue to use the Kennedy Road Magazines and the ropeway. There is also reason to doubt whether, even supposing the substituted accommodation were ready earlier than is anticipated above, building development in the Arsenal Yard would be practically impeded during the next two years by the temporary retention of the ropeway.
Apart, however, from the question of urgency, the situation needs to be considered from another point of view. The continued occupation of the Kennedy Road Magazines and the continued user of the ropeway by the military after the naval evacuation will be due to no wish of the military authorities but to the failure of the Colonial Government to implement their proposals to provide alternative magazine accommodation for the Army, while at the same time proceeding with their proposals to enable the Admiralty to vacate. In the opinion of the Army Council it would be neither equitable nor reasonable that through what may be described as a piece-meal scheme of reprovision which the Council have no opportunity of controlling, and which the Admiralty appear to have accepted on the strength of representations from the Colonial Government, the War Department should be mulcted in heavy expenditure, whether in diverting the ropeway or in compensating the Colonial Government for possible
The Under-Secretary of State,
Colonial Office,
S.W.1.
depreciation
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