CO129-538-6 Naval Armament Depot- correspondence 19-6-1931 - 31-3-1933 — Page 47

Ne. SECRET.

Sir,

༣.

1:47

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

HONG KONG. 29th December, 1931.

бол

82449/21

Mens wadu

With reference to my confidential despatch of the 9th of September, 1931 on the subject of the removal of the Naval Armament Depot from Hong Kong, I have the honour to inform you that I have been in correspondence with the Naval and Military Authorities regarding an aerial ropeway erected in or about 1901 by the War Office across what is now known as the Naval Arsenal Yard for the purpose of conveying explosives from the Military Magazines on Kennedy Road to and from the sea front within the Arsenal Yard.

2.

This ropeway at the time of its construction was, apart from the portion crossing Queen's Road, erected entirely on War Department property. In 1921, when user of the area known as the Arsenal Yard was formally transferred from the War Office to the Admiralty, no reference to the ropeway or to the question of any right of continued user was made in the memorandum of transfer.

In

fact the memorandum expressly provided that when the land in question should no longer be required for Admiralty purposes it should revert to the Colonial Government, and that it should not be re-transferred to the Secretary of State for War without the consent of the Colonial Government being first obtained.

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE,

SIR P. CUNLIFFE-LISTER, G.B.E., E.C., M.P.,

&C.,

&c.,

3.

&c.