"
Telegrams : (SHIPPING) SHIPMINDER, TELEX, LONDON.”
(Inland Transport) "TRANSMINRY, TELEX, LONDON."
Telephone-ABBEY 7711
EXTN.
Our Refer
CDS. 13001
Your Reference... 543.37/49.
145
MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT,
1
BERKELEY SQUARE HOUSE,
LONDON, W.1
(9) on '49
Dear Hall,
27 March, 1950.
I am sorry not to have been able to reply to your letter of 27th January before this.
(
As to paragraph 4 of your letter, we agree that a classification of the craft according to the source from which they were obtained would be irrelevant even if it were possible.
We think, too, that for the Hong Kong Government to claim all the vessels as a free gift, on the strength of an exchange of telegrams which did no more than suggest that as the U.K. Government had borne the initial cost of craft handed over for the use of the Colony, it was not unreasonable to ask the Colony to bear the cost of incidental charges incurred in getting some of them into service, is putting a construction upon the telegrams which was neither intended nor really implied.
The Hong Kong The relevant facts as we see tham, are plain. Government now have in their possession craft (admittedly not entirely suitable in all cases) owned by the Ministry of Transport, Admiralty and War Office, which they have used for a number of years and which have been valued in their present condition by their Director of Marine at £377,000.
Had they not been required by the Hong Kong Government the craft could have been disposed of (as other surplus craft at Hong Kong were) to commercial interests for a very considerable figure.
H.P. Hall, Esq.
Colonial Office,
The Church House,
Great Smith Street, London, S.W.1.
/ The
DMW.