CO129-483 - Others & Individuals - 1923 — Page 263

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A note on the military lands question in

Hong Kong will be found on 27987, together with some

semi-official correspondence between Sir J.Masterton- to Creek' Smith and the Treasury, The sore point

feelins

is the alleged inadequate use to which

the War Department put their very valuable lands at

present. In 1920 (24586), Sir E. Stubbs wrote that

a large part of the land in the best quarter of Kowloom

is occupied by mat sheds containing the mules attached

to the Hong Kong and Singapore Battalion, R.G.A.; and

he added that it is natural that a good deal of feeling

is caused by the reflection that large areas in the

best quarter for business purposes are occupied by

military establishment, which could apparently be

housed elsewhere without any detriment to the efficiency

of the defence of the Colony.

When on leave in 1921, he wrote (41117) that

if the War Office would not accept the arrangement

agreed on between the local military and civil authori-

ties, the result would be that the garrison would re.

main in unsatisfactory quarters and that the military

contribution question would assume a serious aspect

with a demand for a Royal Commission. He said that

the point for the Secretary of State to settle was

whether he was prepared to allow the War Office to

blackmail the Colony by obstructing its development,

as an alternative to demanding excessive sums of money

from it. He said that the whole of British trade in

South China depended on the prosperity of Hong Kong,

which was being checked by the War Office, and that

meant that British interests were being obstructed by the attempts of the War Office to make Hong Kong pay more than it could afford in order to institute a reform

which