CIP.
N
C.E.inC0454/34/57b Desires local
18·1·38
be approached in
1. Admiralty
connection with
free
grant of land
you
goot
extensions.
2
고
See (4) on
53514/37.
I copy h/w.
No. 1 of 1901.
x hot only Hay Kory
but all colonies, as
land
the provoca
cancemed.
The Admiralty's letter, to use the most
favourable word, seems to me ingenuous. In 1931
the Colonial Government paid them $2,000,000 for the
surrender of the Island and the Arsenal Yard concerned,
and they now ask that this land should be returned to
them free, "having regard to the general obligation
of a colony to contribute according to its means
towards its own defence". They therefore think that
the Colonial Government could reasonably be requested
to provide the land free of charge.
The question of the terms of the provision
of land in Hong Kong for the Service Departments is a
long-standing subject of controversy, and I attach,
for convenience, a copy of a memorandum which was
prepared in this connection on another file. The
position is that the defence obligations of Hong Kong
have been fully compounded by the contribution by the
Colonial Government of 20 per cent. of its revenue
towards the cost of Imperial defence. The circular
despatch of 1894 quoted by the Admiralty states only
that the proposals for the creation of a Military
Lands Account do not affect the obligation of a
colony to provide other lands within its borders for
military purposes, whether under some special agreement
or under the general obligation that rests on every
colony to contribute, according to its means, towards
its own defence. It seems to me to be clear from
this and from the terms of the Hong Kong Defence
Contribution Ordinance that while there is an
obligation upon the Colonial Government to facilitate
the acquisition of land for military purposes by one
*
of the Service Departments, it is under no obligation
whatsoever
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