4 hate
Note
dolé
in th. Rees William
11 May 49)
3
(a) The water supply of the Island is derived 60% from reservoirs
on the Island, 40% from the New Territories by pipeline under the harbour.
The whole of the water supply of Kowloon comes from the New Territories.
The present supply is inadequate for the increased population
to the extent that the hours of supply have to be limited during the dry months (e.g. 16 hours a day in the winter of 1947/48 and 10 hours a day
from mid-March until the rains broke in mid-June 1948; had the rains been
later there would have to have been a further limitation; we have no
information as to the position this year). Possibilities of increasing
reservoir capacity on the Island have been examined, but such schemes would
be both expensive and still inadequate. A new project in the New Territories,
which would provide approximately 30 million gallons per day at a cost of
approximately £4 million, is therefore proposed. This is considered to be
the only practicable scheme, but there are financial difficulties, and the
matter is under correspondence with the Governor.
(b) We do not know the reasons for the murder of the two Police
The further report promised in paragraph 7 of Hong Kong
Inspectors.
telegram No. 414 (copy attached) has not yet come.
(c). (i) Recruitment of seven Gazetted officers under age 24 is
outstanding. It is proposed to recruit these, together with 45 officers
from Malaya, by summary lection without going through the full C.S.A.B.
procedure. A Board will be held on the 16th May at which this Hong Kong requirement will be given priority The men will be flown out and should
be in the Colony by the end of this month.
(ii) A telegram has just come from Hong Kong asking for the recruitment of 30 Inspeptors by early August. No difficulty is expected
in securing the men They will probably come out of the unsuccessful
applicants for the Hong Kong and Malaya Gazetted posts referred to in (i)
above. Passages by sea or air will be difficult. We therefore propose to
suggest to Hong Kong the charter of a special 'plane as was done recently
when we sent out a previous batch of Folice Inspectors.