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From General Officer Commanding Troops
in South China.
Sir,
To Secretary, War Office,
London, S.#.
748
Head Quarters, Hongkong.
Eth. December, 1905.
In continuation of my letter to you dated 30th. ultimo No.
A/5888/7, on the subject of the disposal of Murray Battery, 1 have
the honour to forward herewith copy of a letter dated 2nd. instant,
addressed by His Excellency the Governor of Hongkong to the Right
Honourable the Colonial Secretary, on which i desire to make one or
two comments.
2. The agreement it should be remembered, was drawn up most care-
fully by Colonel Lewis in direct communication with the Honourable
F. H. May and myself; and it is only fair that if there is any doubt
as to the meaning of any part of it the opinions of Colonel Lewis
and Mr. May be obtained.
8.
For my part i should never have (on the part of the War Depart-
ment) accepted the agreement had 1 supposed that it was intended to
treat the site of Murray Battery in the way the Governor is advised
to do. On the contrary 1 very distinctly remember Colonel Lewis tell-
ing me that Mr. May had told him that he believed the site of Murray
Battery to be worth $300,000,
4.
No doubt the Law Officers here were not consulted at the time,
Kat and I submit, they are reading into the Agreement definition of "Bat-
tery" not only not intended but, to a Military mind, absurd.
5.
The statement that "no arguments have been advanced in support of these viens" (vide paragrape 4) is hardly fair, since all argu-
ments were advanced at the time of the drawing up of the Agreement
and on those arguments the agreement was made. The question, there-
fore, is one of fact and not of argument.
6.
I presume that paragraph 6 refers to the use of the word
"freehold" on page 2 in the Agreement.
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