CO129-080 - Sir Robinson - 1861 [1-3] — Page 377

6.

371

report required by this Excellency as to the absolute

necessity for the ocenpation of

Excellency furnished

that

range,

Heis

me with a Memorandum

to read to Colonel Mann shewing the necessity

f

and that the semi-official

adopted with a view to the prevention

anch information, procedure

dure was

of delay. Colonel Mann having Communicated with the General, Sir Hope Grant wrote on the 16th Instant to His Exccuncy repeating that any queries I might require from the Commanding Royal

Engineer

would not

affect

the

the

question, he being disposition

or m

judge of the area and

accommodation wanted for the additional troops

proposed to be quartered there, the mumber

however being then reduced

from 300 to 200.

Under the above Circumstances, and not

having obtained the necessary information, expecially

us to the present occupation of the extensive area, and the member and size of the sheds proposed for the additional men, my report must necessarily be more

has demanded.

incomplete than I desire, or this Excituency

In

my previous letter to

your

address upon

the unanthroniser occupation of this Range, I intimated

Conviction that

my

if permitted it would eventuate

in complications affecting the permanent appropriation of Kowloon; these it was most desirable to avoid, not

only on general grounds, but as the area in question

was one

specially referred to in the report of the - Mixed Commission it should, in

my opinion,

be kept vacant until the decision of Aber albajesty's Government could be obtained.

It is remarkable that Napin's Range,

of all other places in the Peninsula, showed have