Enclosure No.3.
C.R.C.C.No.X/16363(G).
Headquarters,
China Command,
Hong Kong,
2nd February, 1938.
192
Your Excellency,
By your direction I am submitting the following
minute on the question of a proposal to build an aircraft
factory in or near KOWLOON.
When the question was first referred to me on
a C.S.O. File in an Executive Council bag, the site for the
factory was described as "adjacent to KAI TAK Airport" (as far as memory serves), meaning "having direct access to the
aerodrome". Further, the information showed that the output
would be at the rate of 300 single engine machines per annum: this implied probably a military fighter aircraft.
2.
In view of these conditions, I considered the
following to be adequate reasons for opposing the proposals. (a) The close proximity to a Service establishment of
an organisation containing skilled and often traitorous personnel increases the liability of
the limited defence resources of the Colony -
(b)
particularly as the major portion of this
liability will fall on the Army, which is responsible for the protection of that establishment against
agression or mass sabotage.
-
In an already congested flying area - civil and
military demanding flying facilities adds to present difficulties both on the ground and in the air.
the addition of a large factory
(c)
The continued use of KAI TAK Airport in War will
be further endangered by the close proximity of what, the enemy may regard as an additional military