10 Y
Tel. No.-Whitehall 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/3288 (L.B.)
f
Sir,
RECEIV
SCHEME
[15 JUL 19.36
O. O. RECY
MEN
THE WAR OFFICE,
LONDON, S.W.1.
14th
July, 1936
(3)
(6) With reference to your letters of the 24th March and 16th April last, No.53547/36, regarding the surrender of the Naval Arsenal Yard at Hong Kong, I am commanded by the Army Council to state that they have considered the representations made in the copy letter dated 4th February from. the Governor which was enclosed with the earlier letter, and they note that the Colonial Government claim to be entitled to receive the Yard from the Admiralty free from all encumbrances. But the Yard is, in effect, if not in legal form, subject to an easement created for the benefit of a third party the Secretary of State for War - who was not a party to the agreement relating to the transfer of the Yard. The Naval authorities were obviously not in a position to commit the War Department to the loss of the easement and cannot, in the Council's opinion, be justly penalized for not pointing out a position of affairs which was already within the knowledge of the Colonial Government.
Corry to Hong Kong.
my
Anod (9)
Nor can the Council regard themselves as entitled to appropriate monies due to the Admiralty and apply them to the construction of a new access road, as suggested in the letter dated 4th March last from the Governor to the General Officer Commanding, and they regret that at present they are not in a position to give any undertaking regarding the removal of the ropeway, the retention of which is essential in the absence of suitable alternative means of transport.
In the circumstances, the Council have given consideration to an alternative proposal which appears to them to offer a reasonable method of removing the present impasse. The proposal is that the suggested new access road between Queen's Road and Garden Road, which would admit of the removal of the ropeway and would also be of value in the future civilian development of this area, should be constructed now at War Department expense on condition that, when the Kennedy Road
The Under Secretary of State,
Colonial Office,
S.W.1.
premises
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