CO129-091 - Acting Governor Mercer - 1863 [1-3] — Page 492

2.

476

associated with me, viz.- the Consideration of the subject with the view of affording the greatest posible amount of accommodation to Commerce generally due

regard being had

to the Naval and Military interests for

may

Msy reports to which I have referred

be taken as the view I still entertain of the whole question and that tos after reading the

arguments of Dr. Home (which I cannot

agree

with him are unprejudiced) or those of

the other Military Medical men.

The site selected for the Cantonment and as exhibited in Siv Hercules Robinson's despatch

No 40 of 1861 and

finally recommended by the present Commanding Royal Engineer is I

am convinced the position best calculated to

provide for

all the possible

wanto

of

the

26th March 1861,

1

Military Service, my

I need not here

repeat;

reasons

but

for so believing

as

regards

the

attack upon it in a Samitory point of view, I

may observe that as it was undrained ito ~

strongly

occupation in its present state was

deprecated and it was

ocenpies also in opposition

to dir Hercules Robinson's wishes, yet in the

face of this and the first reports of the Military builtgren

Doctors and of Civilians also it was

"to prove ito sanatory properties." - I am not Surprised therefore that it has turned out 75

per

is no

cent of the sick of Nowloon, this however

proof of

its

mon-

adaptability for the purposes of a Cantonment, with the exception

of

the Western portion near the sea it is susceptible

of easy drainage and at small expense, the

Land is as

high

as that proposed by Colonel