Q
4.
42
Commissioner of Prisons too late for adequate consideration
before the estimates were passed. All of them are in my
opinion urgent and necessary and they will all have the added
virtue of giving employment to some of the thousands of
persons who are now destitute or practically destitute in
the Colony as a result of the incursion of refugees. In the
present state of the Colony I attach real importance to public
works policy from this point of view; additional employment
cannot fail indirectly to help the revenue, so much of which
depends on the expenditure of the ordinary populace; and it
must also diminish the calls on Government for relief of
distress. The Teachers' Training College is also an item
which did not appear in the original draft estimates. Detailed plans have not yet been prepared and the estimate
of full cost is very approximate but I am very anxious to
proceed with this and have therefore included provision for
its commencement this year.
7.
There are certain other works which I should
have been prepared to include in the proposed supplementary
provision, that is, the Police Training School and a new
mortuary for Kowloon, which are urgently required. Owing,
however, to difficulties in finding suitable sites and for
other technical reasons, it is unlikely that any money could
be spent on these works for the current year. I propose,
however, to put in hand at once preparations for the
undertaking of them and to regard them as in the nature of
commitments for the purposes of the 1940 estimates. The
Police Training School is already included in the Police
works forming item 10 in the five year programme for Public
Works published as Sessional Paper 13 of 1938, forwarded
with my despatch No.844 of 21st November, 1938.
8.
It will be necessary, if the proposed building
works, including the building of the new Government House
which