XXX CONFIDENTIAL (2).
Copy to Headquarters,
China Command.
1331939
53654/391
45
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONG KONG.
30th January, 1939.
N
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Sir,
I have the honour to inform you that for some
time past I have been discussing informally with the local Military Authorities the possibility of the removal
of the barracks and other buildings occupied by the infantry battalion stationed in the central district of
Victoria and on Victoria Peak from their present site to
another less valuable site on the island of Hong Kong
away from the centre of the city, so as to render a
large tract of land in the heart of Victoria available
for civil development. The negotiations are now about to enter upon a more formal stage and the time is ripe to report for your approval the general lines on which
it is proposed that the scheme should proceed and to
seek your authority for carrying the discussions a
further stage.
2.
Briefly it is proposed that the Military
should surrender the land upon which the barracks and
ancillary buildings of the infantry battalion at present
stand in return for the grant of a new site elsewhere on
the island and the payment by the Colonial Government of
the complete cost of site formation and of the buildings,
access roads, antimalarial work and water supplies necessary to reprovision the battalion thereon, subject
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
MALCOLM MACDONALD, M.P.,
&C.,
&C.,
&C.