CO129-538-6 Naval Armament Depot- correspondence 19-6-1931 - 31-3-1933 — Page 48

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3.

Concurrently with the negotiations for the transfer

of the Arsenal Yard, during which no mention was made of the

ropeway, the question of the removal of the Military Magazines was being explored and it seems to have been tacitly assumed that the ropeway would become superfluous and would be removed. The removal of the Military Magazines has been indefinitely postponed and on the 21st of April I received from the General Officer Commanding the British Troops in China a communication requesting the transfer to the War Department of the area occupied by the ropeway together with certain buildings in the Arsenal Yard the retention of which

Was regarded as essential by the War Office.

4. To grant this request would without doubt have the effect of depriving the Colony of a large proportion of the benefits which it may hope to receive in return for the payments now being made to the Naval Authorities.

As will

Encl. No. 1. be seen from the accompanying plan the total area asked for

by the War Department amounts to some 70,000 square feet valued at from $500,000 to $700,000. Moreover the surrender of this portion would make it impossible to develop the balance in the most advantageous manner and the total loss might therefore be even greater than the figure quoted above.

5. In my reply to the Military Authorities I pointed out that these considerations made it impossible for the Government to comply with their request and suggested that the ropeway should be diverted so as to pass over Military Land to the water front, and on the 19th of June a conference was held at which the Government was represented

by