CO129-551-9 Acquisition of land for Air Ministry at Kai Tak 17-2-1936 - 9-1-1937 — Page 76

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para 59(13)

(13)

refund of a proportion of the cost of forming and

resuming as well as of the consolidated Crown rent,

should the site in question be vacated by the R.A. F.

before the expiry of 25 years. After some delay, the

Air Ministry, on 30.12.35, agreed to pay the costs of

forming and resuming, but reserved the question of the

payment of consolidated Crown rent. In the meantime

a complication has arisen through the proposal to extend

the Kai Tak aerodrome which was reported to the Secretary

of State in a despatch dated 9.12.35. This work, which

instance

was undertaken at the expense and on behalf of the R.A.F.

authorities, had been ambarked upon before any form of

undertaking had been obtained from the Air Ministry

that they would bear a share of the cost, although the

Hong Kong Government had commenced the work on this

understanding. On the grounds that the scheme of Imperial

defence expansion embarked upon in the spring of this

year involved a reconsideration of all aspects of R.A. F.

expansion in the Far East, the Air Ministry have delayed

action in this matter until now, in spite of repeated

appeals from Hong Kong. The Ministry have never denied

their liability; but now attempt to make payment

conditional upon acceptance by Hong Kong of an agreement

regarding terms of transfer in general which runs

counter to all the principles accepted here.

7.

In their letter of the 15th August, the Air request Ministry that land may be provided for R.A.F. purposes

free of charge, except for the cost of resumption and

indicate (paragraph 3) that they regard this as

equivalent to the terms granted to the War Office in

respect of land at Kowloon Tsai. The latter is, of

course,