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of pre-emption on coal stored was secured in the event of strained relations or war. Meanwhile the Firm desired to acquire a short lease of a site on the railway reclamation and having ascertained your views a lease of an area of 60,000 sq. ft. at Blackhead's Point for a period of 10 years was
signed on May 30th. Negotiations continued for the long lease of a larger site and terms for the lease of "site 4", as shewn on the enclosure of my despatch of December 6th, 1910, have now been drawn up and I have instructed the Director of Public Works to communicate them to the Mitsui Bussan Kaisha and to ascertain whether they are acceptable.
3.
Before doing so I thought it my
duty to inform the Executive Council of the matter, which is ob-viously one of very considerable importance. General Anderson thon raised the question as to whether the sale was advisable from a Military point
of view. His objections are fully set out in his letter of August 25th, (Enclosure I), and I would especially invite your attention to the very interesting enclosures to that letter: I replied on August 27 th, (Enclosure II). In brief I pointed out that the gravamen of his objection being that the establishment of a large Japanese industry in the Colony would be
a Military danger in that it would bring an additional number of Japanese into the Colony was an issue not directly connected with the present transaction since the Mitsui Bussan Kaisha already owned extensive coal depots here, and I therefore saw no reason to delay this matter pending further reference home.
The application from this Firm has been delayed for
over a year already and they are pressing for a
definite
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