CO129-523-1 Reclamation work at North Point- a general plan of port of Hong Kong showing extent... 27-12-1929 - 12-6-1930 — Page 15

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and with good will on both sides have been successfully

surmounted. Such agreement however should ordinarily

be contingent on the release of Mr. Kwik from

$300,000 of the original loan together with accrued

interest, as advised by the Executive Council,

receiving the approval of the Secretary of State

and the consent of the Legislative Council three years

hence when the approved period for the completion of

the Building Covenant will have expired. Mr. Kwik,

perhaps not unnaturally in the light of his past

experiences is reluctant to accept this contingency

and asks that such release should receive definite

approval now.

The

8. My Executive Council has taken the question

into further consideration, and has now advised that

the previous decision should be modified to the

extent of advising that the remission of the

$300,000 and interest in question be made effective

at the time of the signing of the agreement.

intention of such remission is clear throughout, and

the risk that Mr. Kwik, who has some four million

dollars at stake, may fail to carry out the terms of

the Building Covenant, thereby laying his property

open to re-entry by the Government, is considered to

be so negligible as to make it undesirable that this

difficulty should be allowed to stand in the way of

the satisfactory settlement that is now in view.

The agreement of Your Lordship will make it possible

to proceed at once to a formal presentation of the

vote required to the Legislative Council, and so, it

may