CO129-556-12 Naval Arsenal Yard- hand over to Hong Kong Government 4-2-1936 - 21-12-1936 — Page 24

COPY.

CRCC/X.1/AQ.

Enclosure No.2.

Headquarters,

China Command,

Hong Kong,

27th September, 1929.

24

Your Excellency,

I have the honour to acknowledge receipt

of Your Excellency's letter No.871/1929 of the 17th instant,

in regard to the evacuation of magazines on War Department

land in the vicinity of Victoria Barracks.

I fear that a misconception has crept in,

with regard to sub-paragraph (c) of your above-quoted letter.

I venture to suggest that the situation

may be briefly summarised in the following terms.

Your Excellency, having fears in regard to

the damage which might be done in the City of Victoria,

wishes to have all dangerous stores removed from Kellett's

Island and the New and Old Magazines, and, consequently,

the Naval and Military authorities undertook to explore the

best means of meeting Your Excellency's wishes.

This

As you are aware, an anomaly exists in so

far that Military explosives are stored on Kellett's

Island (Admiralty property) and Naval ammunition is stored

in the New and Old Magazines (War Office property).

peculiar state of affairs has existed since 1923, and is

due to the Admiralty wishing to keep their cordite separate

from Army cordite, and in magazines with a cooler tempera-

ture than those on Kellett's Island.

2.

So far as the Army is concerned, we would

be quite content to make use of the Old and New Magazines

for our explosives, as there would be ample room for our

existing stores, plus the reserve which, so far, has never been issued, provided the Navy vacated both magazines.