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unable to fulfil our responsibility to keep it in good condition. No doubt you have evidence of other grass plots in the Colony which require careful nursing if the grass is to be maintained.
Apart from the use of the ground as "Members' Club" I would like to point out that it is used whenever required for ceremonial occasions such as "Beating the "Retreat" by the Bands of H.M. Forces. It has always been used for "Volunteer Cricket Week" when our facilities are granted to non-Members, the Annual Lawn Tennis Championships of the Colony are organized by the H.K.C.C. during the period of which all competitors are admitted to honorary membership of the Club, and the ground has been made available to the L.T.A. for Exhibition Tennis by visiting exponents of the game. Interport Cricket has always been organized by the H.K.C.C. and the principal matches during those Festivals are played on the Club ground.
The Flowers Show has been held on the Ground, and twice since the Liberation Schools Gymnastic Displays organized by the Education Department on behalf of the Rotary Club have been staged there.
The Club derives no financial benefit from these events and, may I add, our con- tribution to such worthy causes as the Boys and Girls Club Association, the Children's Playground Association, the Salvation Army and St. John's Ambulance benefitted to the extent of $1,525 as the result of our last Annual Tennis Tournament.
I can confidently say that my Committee is sufficiently broadminded as to try to see the question of our tenancy from every angle, in connection with which one point adduced against us retaining the ground as it stands centres around the vexed question of "Traffic". We have had it suggested that an alleviation to the present problem might be achieved by carving off a section of the South side of the Ground.
It may be argued that this is a matter beyond our scope, and possibly yours, but we are sub- mitting a case for the retention of the Ground as it stands, a recreation ground for various games and for a large Membership, the value of which will be inordinately reduced by such a policy and I submit that in fact the H.K.C.C. ground does not provide any solution to the traffic problem of today. The real answer to this problem is one-way traffic which must pass on either side of the ground, but if additional park- ing space is the immediate objective I suggest that this could be better sought on Murray Parade Ground from where Peak and Robinson Road Traffic would avoid passing through the Queen's Road bottle-neck.
My submission to your Committee therefore is that certainly within living memory we have given a good account of our stewardship of the valuable plot entrusted to our care, that we have adopted a public spirited attitude towards the use of the ground, and finally that, if, as we believe, it is the intention of Government that ground should be maintained in its present condition and not used for building purposes, no useful pur- pose to the public will be served by uprooting from the ground held by them for nearly one hundred years a section of the community which is steadfast, law abiding and capable of fulfilling Government's wishes regarding the ground, in the spirit as well as in the letter.
For these reasons we hope that your Committee will be willing to recommend to Government that the H.K.C.C. be granted a lease on our present ground which will enable us to plan for the future welfare of that section of the community which it is our responsibility to serve, and to continue to provide those public functions which it has been our privilege to organize in the past.
Yours faithfully,
H. OWEN-HUGHES,
President.
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APPENDIX VI.
A. APPLICATIONS MADE TO THE COMMITTEE.
Applying for
Old Civil Service Cricket Club.
Club or Organization.
1. Sanitary Department Staff Welfare
Committee.
2. Craigengower
Own ground.
3.
Post Office Recreation Club
4.
Softball Association
Own pre-war area C Caroline Hill.
Any ground.
5.
European Y.M.C.A.
6.
Little Flower Club
7.
Shell Sports Club.
8.
Chinese Bankers
9.
Hing Yan School
10.
St. Joseph's College
11. Wah Yan College (Kowloon)
C.B.A. Ground in King's Park.
12.
Hawkers' Association
13.
Filipino Club
Own tennis grounds in King's Park.
Area "Q" King's Park.
Any ground.
Queen's College Ground.
Any ground near Taipo Road, Sham-
shuipo.
Area G in Happy Valley.
Children's Playground at Tong Mi Road,
as a market.
Own area M in King's Park.
(plus area N in addition for develop ment).
APPLICATIONS MADE TO CHAIRMAN, URBAN COUNCIL.
B.
1.
Cable and Wireless
2
Gold & Silver Exchange Society
3.
Khalsa Sports Club
4. Hong To Middle School
5. Commissioner of Police
6. Hong Kong Football Club.
Any ground.
Ground at Caroline Hill near Leighton
Hill Road.
Area C Caroline Hill.
Ground at Waterloo Road.
Ground at Happy Valley.
Old Civil Service Cricket Club Grounds.
7. P. Halls (on behalf of transiant air Ground next to area D, King's Park.
crews)
Ground at Happy Valley.
Ground at King's Park.
A.R.P. Club Ground at King's Park.
Old C.B.S. Hockey Pitch at King's Park.
Ground in King's Park.
8.
Mr. W. E. Hitchins (Golf School)
9.
American Club
10.
Pok Man School
11.
European Civil Service Hockey Club.
12.
Hong Kong Chinese Sanitary Inspectors' Association
13.
Hong Kong Civil Service Association
Ground at Causeway Bay.
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