No. 375.
a
20.112
Sir,
3 JUN 038
6,9
19
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONG KONG.
9th May, 1938.
I have the honour to refer to my despatch
| No.276 of 4th of April, 1938, in the third paragraph of
which a further communication was promised on the subject
of the compensation terms for the existing sites and
buildings of the Naval Hospital.
2.
The ten years period during which the
Admiralty has been given an option to accept the terms
originally proposed by Sir Cecil Clementi will presumably
expire in September, 1939, as is confirmed by the fact 13709/33 that the Admiralty letter of 22nd of April, 1933, which 10137633accompanied the despatch No.164 of 2nd of May, 1933,
from Sir P. Cunliffe-Lister (now Viscount Swinton), uses
the words "renewable from year to year for a total period
not exceeding ten years.' Sir Cecil's first offer to
the Commodore is dated 17th of September, 1929.
3.
There are at present no indications of any immediate intention to remove the Hospital in question
and I should therefore prefer to defer for one more year the consideration of the present-day figure for compensation, which is in any case likely to be a complicated matter to
decide in view of depreciation and the decline in the value
of the dollar, to mention only two points.
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
W. G. A. ORMSBY-GORE, P.C., M.P.,
&C.
&C.,
&C.,
4.