CO129-557-6 Tenure of lands held by War Department 16-1-1936 - 25-1-1937 — Page 17

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or sway unway

any unsortant principle so us tembannis that

COT runes

to be borne entirely from home funds, since

it has for some time past been substantially in excess of the Defence Contribution payable

by the Colony. If, therefore, the Colonial

Government can see its way to be as generous

It is

as possible without risking their own financial

solvency, it is not for us to object. important, however, that their Tiabilities

should be well defined. In the present

agreement the Colonial Government place figure

of their claim of $1,000,000 as a set-off

against an approximately similar figure which

is the maximum the War Department undertake to

expend on anti-malarial works at Kau Lung Tsai.

This figure of $1,000,000 seems to me to

assume that the Sham Shui Po area will be

evacuated by the military in four years' time.

As, however, the military were allowed to

"squat" there for an emergency nearly ten

years ago, and have been there ever since, it

would not be at all unreasonable if the

Colonial Government were to stipulate that the

War Department, if the Sham Shui Po has not

been evacuated by the military by the end of

1940, should accept liability thereafter for

rent for that site at the rate of $125,000

per annum for so long as it remains in the

occupation of the military.

Further, it will be noticed that the

War Department "will bear the whole cost of

the anti-malarial works at Kau Lung Tsai up

to a maximum of $975,000".

It may well be

that although this is the War Department's

present estimate of the total cost of these

works,