8
Any delay on the part of the Services in vacating the land would
affect Hong Kong's contribution under the terms of the agreement.
If, for instance, the Kai Tak land is not ready for release on
I.
the date stipulated (31.3.78), in circumstances which are the responsibility
of the British Government, then the contribution will remain at 50 per cent
until the land is vacated.
Units from the camps in Sham Shui Po and Argyle Street will be
reprovisioned in existing army camps and this cost will be included in the
normal services works programme which is part of the agreement, the spokesman
added.
The Dodwell's Ridge and Sai Kung camps will both be released
within the first month of the new agreement.
The Sham Shui Po camp will be returned in two stages. The first
covering about five acres will be released by November 1 next year and
the remainder of the camp (28 acres) will be handed back by December 31,
1977.
The first of the two camps in Argyle Street, covering some
4.5 acres will be returned by March 31, 1977; and the second (9.1 acres)
by December 31, 1979.
Under the new agreement, about $59 million a year (out of the
total cost of $450 million a year) will be spent on capital works, maintenance
and minor works for the Services.
The spokesman pointed out that it has always been the policy of
the garrison to hand back to the Government any land which is no longer
required.
"In future