CO129-538-6 Naval Armament Depot- correspondence 19-6-1931 - 31-3-1933 — Page 2

1 God Sent

29/12

Fequests authorlig to deduct the Cost D. the removal & an

Ropeway from

from the

ممبر من كه گھر دم

The Admuralling

б

ciescal

2

4k 6.

Sout

the final instalment due from the

19.33.

It is clear that the question of this

ropeway ought to have been raised during the

negotiations which culminated in the agreement of

the Hong Kong Government to pay $2,000,000 for the

land vacated by the Admiralty. Instead, it

appears at that time to have been tacitly assumed

that the ropeway would become superfluous on the

romoval of the military magazine, which removal

has now been indefinitely postponed.

Given the agreement in the 1921 memorandum

of transfer, entioned in the second paragraph of

the despatch, that, when no longer required for

Admiralty purposes the Naval Arsenal Yard should

revert to the Colonial Government, and should not in

any case be re-transferred to the War Office without

Colonial Government consent, it seems to me

that the Hong Kong Government has taken up the only

reasonable attitude. The decision to pay $2,000,000

was taken on the assumption that the development of

the area in question would yield at least that

amount in land sales. Such an assumption would be

entirely falsified if the ropeway were to remain in

its present position.

The local Naval and Military Authorities

appear to share the llong Long Government's view,

that the ropeway must be diverted;

such difference

of opinion as exists relates to the apportionment

of the cost of removal, etc.

I