CO129-410 - Governor Sir May - 1914 [3-5] — Page 304

:

Sir,

I am directed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to acknowledge

the receipt of your letter of the

(No.

Affairs that, as

of

), and to request you to inform the Secretary of State for Foreign

appears to be resident in

7

H

should be addressed to Communications on this subject

The Under Secretary of State,

Colonial Office,

and the following number quoted.

Downing Street,

London, S.W..

19

No 118

REC

C.O

16671

REG2 7 MAY 14

297

GOVERNMENT HOUSE.

HONGKONG. 14th. April, 1914.

Sir,

With reference to previous correspondence as

fficer Administering the Government's)

Despatch No. 178 of 3rd.May, 1912. ecretary of State's Despatch No. 180

of 19th. June, 1912.

noted in the margin, I have the honour to inform you that when the conditions, copy of which has been furnished to you, as I understand,

by Mr. Ede, were formulated in accordance with the terms on which Mr. Ede agreed with Sir F. D. Lugard to take up the land for a Portuguese Settlement, Mr. Ede or his Solicitors, to whom in his absence the conditions were sent, found that the condition which provided for reversion to the Government of the land or any

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portion thereof in the event of its being relinquished owing to failure of the scheme, did not provide adequate security on which to raise the money required for financing the scheme. This difficulty made it necessary to recast the conditions to make them approximate to the usual conditions in a sale of land to which the purchaser wishes to obtain a marketable title. Owing to Mr. Ede's absence from the Colony for some months in 1912 and a further absence owing to illness last year I have only recently been able to arrange terms which were acceptable to him.

dowure !.

2.

I enclose a copy of the revised conditions

and I will briefly indicate the departures from the scheme origin- -ally submitted to you.

(a)

E RIGHT HONOURABLE

LEWIS HARCOURT, M.P.,

&c.,

&C..

&C...

TYT

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