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No. 308.
DESTROYED UNDER STATUTE
Enclosure No. 1.
Enclosure No. 2.
Шшав
My Lord,
RE
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONG KONG.
VED
27th June, 1940.
15 AUG 1940
C. O RECE
I have the honour to invite reference to Lord
Arnold's despatch No. 253 of 15th August, 1924, regarding
the approved terms of renewal of seventy-five year leases
of Crown Land in Hong Kong and to forward hereunder a
report, attacking the approved terms of renewal, composed
by a special committee of the General Committee of the Hong
Kong General Chamber of Commerce, together with comments of
the Financial Secretary, Mr. H. R. Butters.
2.
Mr. Butters' memorandum gives an accurate
historical account of this question and corrects the report
of the Committee of the Chamber on certain important points:
in the second paragraph the Chamber's contentions are
shrewdly summarized.
3.
There is no real weight in the argument that the
present holders of seventy-five year non-renewable leases were
led to acquire them by a genuine though mistaken belief that
they would be renewed on expiry or by official statements to
that effect. There is no official statement that could be
cited in support of this belief.
The Colonial Secretary's
reply to Mr. H. W. Bird's question of 14th May, 1925, quoted
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
LORD LLOYD OF DOLOBRAN,
&c., &c., &c.