Copy.
Enclosure No.2.
THE HONG KONG & WHAMPOA DOCK CO. LIMITED,
EC/GMN
Registered Office: Kowloon Docks,
HONG KONG, 26th May, 1939.
13
The Honourable
The Colonial Secretary,
Hong Kong.
Dear Sir,
For the purpose of affording protection to
our Giant Crane and to make it more available by erecting
a second deep water berth at the South Eastern portion
of our property to supplement our only deep water berth
at present, we applied to The Honourable The Director of
Public Works on 27th April, 1938, for land there and
accepted in principle the proposals in his letter of 28th
March, 1939, that we would pay at least the upset price
of the land when auctioned.
The matter is under way but with the question
of foreign concessions in China now becoming acute we
are apprehensive that our efforts to develop our
facilities may be frustrated by, for example, someone from
Shanghai with less permanent interest in this land than
ourselves but by necessity having to seek Hong Kong
security while Shanghai uncertainty lasts, bidding against
us in the open market.
The upset price to which we have agreed is
approximately six times the price we paid Government
for the adjacent land in 1919 but we cannot afford to
pay 50% more, which is the addition we understand for
a sale by private treaty.
We tried to get the Honourable Director of
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.