CO129-551-9 Acquisition of land for Air Ministry at Kai Tak 17-2-1936 - 9-1-1937 — Page 34

Copy

53514/1/36.

3034

Colonial office,

Downing Street, S.W.1.

5th January, 1937.

Dear Bridges,

Thank you for your letter of the 4th January

S.32267/2) about the Kai Tak Aerodrome at Hong Kong.

I have, of course, been aware of your earlier correspondence

with Gent about this question, and it was only after

considering the terms of your letters to him that it was

decided that the time had come to take the question up

officially with the Treasury, and it is for this purpose

that the official letter and memorandum of the 3rd of

December was drafted and sent from the Colonial Office.

A further semi-official reply from the Treasury is not

really what we have been expecting. The matter concerns

a question of substantial importance to Hong Kong, and the

Treasury will no doubt fully consider the attitude of the

Secretary of State for the Colonies as expressed in the

last paragraph of the memorandum enclosed in the official

letter from the Colonial Office.

In the circumstances, therefore, any question of

Colonial Office representatives being appointed to attend a

meeting which you tell me you are arranging on the 13th of

January must await an official reply from the Treasury, in

which we should hope that the views officially expressed

by the Secretary of State for the Colonies will not be

dismissed, but will have most careful examination.

Yours sincerely,

(Signed) H.R. Cowell.

E.E. BRIDGES, ESQ., M.C.