.7
to say.
"Just how value:le this land agreement will be to us is difficul¬
But Her Majesty's Government have underti ken to review their land requirements and I am glad to say they have already agreed that we shall get back a substantial part of the 42 acres of the Whitfield
Barracks site fairly arly, without further reprovisioning and without
the payment, therefore, of one million of the l rillion I mentioned earlier
as being needed. No doubt it will now be possible to return other valuable land to us, when we request it, without expensive reprovisioning; but precisely what can be done in this regard is something that will
require detailed examination. This will be put in hand in due course.
"Now I do not want you to think that these arrangements have been come to without much anxiety and many doubts. I think you know by now that I would never agree to anything which I did not think was in the over-all best interests of the people of Hong Kong, I, and all those with whom these matters have been discussed, have, of course, been guided throughout by this principle and of course all of us had the additional drain on our
budget very much in our minds.
i
"At this point you will no doubt be asking yourselves whether this
new arrangement will mean any immediate increases in taxation, or any cut-
back in our social services. To this I can only reply that any money which, has to be spent on one thing obviously cannot be spent on another: but it iş fair I think to point out again, in this context, that we will be spending no more than we have been spending in the past two years. tie can only wait to see what the effects of this new arrangement will be on our financial position; but I have good hopes that, in the short term at least, they will not be too serious.
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