CO129-568-5 War Department requirements for land at Kowloon for hospital 9-12-1937 - 3-3-1938 — Page 11

- 2 -

11

informed me that Sir Andrew Caldecott had expressed to him the view that, having regard to the purpose for which the mainland area was required, any transfer of the land to the War Department should be free apart from necessary cash expenditure incurred by the Government in preparing the site: acting on this precedent, Major General Bartholomew asked me to take a similar view in regard to the transfer

above-mentioned.

4. The site on the mainland, which is the subject of this despatch, has an area of 584,875 square feet and is valued for purposes of entry in the Military Lands Account at $502,500. So far as can be discovered there

is no precedent for the free grant of land to the War Department and, in fact, such grants would appear to be contrary to the intention of the rules governing the disposal of Colonial Military Lands which were set out in Lord Knutsford's circular despatch of 9th June, 1890, and re-affirmed in Lord Ripon's circular despatch dated 30th

December, 1894.

5.

In these circumstances and in view of the fact

that no documentary record of Sir Andrew Caldecott's offer

can be traced, I feel that I should not be justified in

making such a free grant without your permission and at

the same time obtaining from Sir Andrew Caldecott confirmation

that he did actually intend to offer this land to the War

Department on these terms.

6. I have accordingly written to Sir Andrew Caldecott

asking him to inform me of his recollection of this matter.

I have enclosed a copy of this despatch and have requested

Sir Andrew Caldecott to forward to you a copy of his reply.

I need hardly make it plain that in taking this

action I have no intention of calling in question the good