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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
every senior Government servant, Acting Colonial Secretaries in- cluded. To have kept the Secretariat fully manned in the face of all the casualties which have afflicted it during the last four months, three spare Cadet Officers would have been required.
The question of a more suitable nomenclature for our Police Stations will receive the consideration of the Inspector General.
As regards the completion of the Shing Mun Dam, the Resident Engineer still hopes to complete the work in the time originally set, but in any case the delay and the subsequent change of site were due to the very unexpected defects in the subsoil revealed by the preliminary drillings and were unavoidable. The Resident Engineer also hopes to be able to achieve some storage towards the end of 1935, but here again the stability of the dam as a whole must take priority. I may add that the new siting of the dam is expected to increase the total storage by two hundred and fifty million gallons.
I now come to the points raised by the Honourable Mr. Mackie.
The position regarding our dredging scheme has been dealt with by my Honourable friend the Director of Public Works except as regards the date on which the work is expected to commence. As to this I should say first that Government has been advised that plant of the necessary type is not available in the Far East and therefore cannot be expected to arrive here from Europe until the period of the N. E. Monsoons is over. Secondly, it is the intention of the Govern- ment to invite tenders both locally and at Home, and the specifica- tions and details with the view to obtaining tenders at Home should go by the next mail. There is every reason, therefore, to believe the work can be started as soon as it is physically possible for the plant to arrive in the Colony. I pass to the matter of the Marine Survey Staff. The views of the Chamber of Commerce as to the desirability of the additional staff being recruited on a temporary basis were shared by the Government and communicated to the Board of Trade through the Colonial Office; but the Board appears to have found them impracticable. It must be remembered that it is essential that trained men shall be on hand in the Colony as soon as possible and it is only to be expected that such men will hesitate to fall out of the running at home in order to take up the posts with uncertain prospects in Hong Kong. I shall have more to say on the converse of this proposition in my next section.
As regards the use of the improved Magazine Gap Road, it is the intention of the Government that, apart from trademen's vans and lorries carrying goods to the houses en route the road shall be kept for passenger traffic.
In the matter of the admission of Hong Kong manufacturers to preferential duties in the United Kingdom I am glad to be able to say that it is believed that a method of certification satisfactory
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