CO129-568-6 Botanical and Forestry Department- proposed expansion and reorganisation 4-10-1938 - 14-7-1939 — Page 19

Copyto Oliphant.

15.

No. 153.

10

1419

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

HONG KONG.

1 5 MAR 1939

3rd March, 1939.

Sir,

I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your despatch No.6 dated 6th January, 1939, transmitting a copy of a note by the Director of the Imperial Forestry Institute on the subject of the reorganization and expansion of the forestry service in Hong Kong and to express my thanks for the careful consideration which has been given to this question.

20

I enclose for your information a further memorandum by the Superintendent, Botanical and Forestry Department, which has been prepared as a basis from

which to examine the suggestion, contained in the note under reference, that this Government should obtain the loan of an officer of the Malayan Forest Service to make a survey of the economic possibilities of forestry in Hong Kong.

3.

It will be seen that the forestry problems

of the two dependencies bear little resemblance to each other, for whereas in Malaya they are mainly connected with the economic exploitation of large tracts of established tropical forest far removed from urban development, in Hong Kong the problem is the planting and protection of small patches of woodlands in an area

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

MALCOLM MACDONALD, M.P.,

&C.

&C.,

&C.,