(1)
m1446/7.
CONFIDENTIAL.
Sir,
HONG KONG GENERAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
Encl. 2.
45-
27th. December, 1947.
I am directed to acknowledge and thank you for your
letter, dated 24th. November, 1947, with which was forwarded a
draft of a Press communique on the subject of 75 Year Crown
Leases. This draft has been examined by the Legal Sub-Committee
and by the General Committee and members are grateful for this
opportunity to comment and instruct me to give you their views
as follows:
Before commenting on the Communique in detail, the
Committee wishes me to point out that in all the discussions and
correspondence on this subject prior to the outbreak of the Far
Eastern War, it was understood that Government intended to issue
new 75 Year Leases in place of the old 75 non-renewable leases
on payment of a premium and at a re-assessed Crown rent. The
revision of other Covenants in the old leases was never contemplated.
The Committee wishes to point out that Clause 6(A) of the draft
Press communique directly conflicts with this understanding and
would urge Government to reconsider this point.
Regarding the other clauses in the proposed communique,
the Committee directs me to make the following observations:
Clause 1 Application.
-
It is felt that the time limit of 20 years is set too
low as this will discourage any leaseholders from carrying out
new construction or rehabilitation work. There are many lots
in Kowloon which have over 20 years, but under 35 years, to
run on the present leases, on which the owners are unwilling
to expend capital without reasonable assurance they will have
time to write it down.
In this connection, it is considered that a minimum of
30 years is required.
In addition to the observations in the second paragraph,
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.