COPY.
No. 197.
IREC
C. O.
35732
Brd 28 SEP 03 Commander-in-Chief,
China Station,
322
18th. September, 1901.
Sir,
his Excellency
I have the honour to acknowledge the re-
ceipt of Your Excellency's letter No. 177/6 of the 4th. Septem-
ber, and to comply with your request for my views on the subject
from a Naval standpoint.
2.
I greatly fear that any possible form of
bridge placed as proposed between Hongkong and Kowloon would
prove a serious inconvenience to many of His Majesty's Ships
frequenting the Harbour. The direction proposed as far as I
can trace it without a special plan would, it appears, carry
the bridge clear of the Man-of-War Anchorage: but if that An-
chorage were already rather fully occupied it would frequently
be necessary for a large ship the Flagship "Glory", for example to pass to the Westward of it and turn some 16 points to reach her buoy. The existence of a bridge, even with an opening as suggested, would be likely to prove a formidable
obstacle to her movements.
3.
I should also regard with much apprehension
the installation of piers to support a bridge in such a harbour as Hongkong. It has been observed by others, and is within my personal observation, that the strength of the tidal currents has increased of late years where formerly they were noted as
to suppose
"weak and irregular". It is not unreasonable that, as has been the case elsewhere, the currents have been affected by reclama-
-tion
Sir Henry A. Blake, G.C.M.G.,
Governor,
Hongkong.
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