Ack a (14/43)
86
OUTWARD TELEGRAM
53687/48
Cypher (0.7.P.)
TO HONG KONG (8ic A.. Grantham)
FROM S. OF S. COLONIES.
Sent 1st November, 1948. 22,00 hrs.
No. 1119 Confidential.
My telegram No. 1042,
Tai Iam Chung.
1. Your despatch No, 142 of the 24th June has been given careful consideration and your view ia accepted that available reservoir capacity cannot be expected to cope with future requirements.
2.
Before however coming to final decision as to whether Tai Lam Chung project is the only satisfactory anawer to the problem further consideration of the points raised in paragraphs 4 and 5 below is, I feel, desirable.
3. It is clear that whatever project is adopted its financing will present great difficulty. Pinancial issues involved are still under consideration here and I hope before long to communicate with you separately on this question. should however say from the outset that I regret that it is most unlikely that any financial assistance could be made available by the U.K.
40 The extreme undesirability of the Colony's being dependent on the New Territories for water supplies to a greater extent than is absolutely unavoidable must, I think, be admitted. I should therefore be glad of much fuller particulare of the possible site on the Island referred to in paragraph 4 of your despatch under reference. It may be that this site would not in any circumstances be large enough to go the whole way in solving the problem but, even so, might it not go part of the way, and night this not be very useful? Might at not be possible by these means to ensure that the Island could be self-supporting, even though Kowloon were to remain dependent on the New Territories?
56 I should also be glad of further information about the Tai Lam Chung scheme, for instance is more than one reservoir envisaged or is the scheme otherwise of such a nature that it might be possible to cut it short if the population of the Colony were to begin to decrease? This point is of importance not only because of its financial implications, but because it is just conceivable that the best solution might be a modified Tai Lem Chung scheme coupled with the development of facilities on the Island itself. I am aware that this will be likely to involve substantially increased capital expenditure, but the matter is of such importance that I think the possibility ought to be considered.
6.
Please let me have the further information asked for in paragraphs ↳ and 5 together with your views on the points raised.
Copy sent to:
TOCABUŻY
T
Mr. I.P. Razenots
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