CO129-567-3 Request by Admiralty for additional land at the Naval Arsenal 18-1-1938 - 24-3-1939 — Page 13

XNOX CONFIDENTIAL.

노드

53547/38

9

13

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

HONG KONG.

28 DEC 1938

13th December, 1938.

Copy To Rummy. 10.

6

Sir,

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of

your confidential despatch of 21st October, 1938, transmitting

a copy of a letter from the Admiralty on the subject of

the Arsenal Yard at Hong Kong.

2. I shall be grateful if the Admiralty may be informed in reply that the Colonial Government feel some

difficulty in granting an option, particularly for an indefinite period, on the landward portion of the Arsenal

Yard. It will be recalled that the Colonial Government has

already suffered considerable loss of interest on the

purchase price of this property, which was paid in instalments spreading over a considerable period before the land was handed over, and I cannot contemplate with equanimity a further loss of interest owing to inability to

accept any commercial offer which may be made for the site.

As an alternative, therefore, to granting an option the

Colonial Government will be prepared to give an undertaking

not to sell the land without first informing the Admiralty,

on condition that in that event the Admiralty will be

prepared to give a decision as to their own willingness to

purchase within a reasonable period, say three months.

3.

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

I take this opportunity to say that as considerable

MALCOLM MACDONALD, M.P.,

&C., &C.

&c.

E