Sessional_Paper_1900 — Page 177

No. 274.

5-

171

30. The Members of the Jubilee Committee therefore ask you, Sir, on behalf of the subscribers to the fund and the Community generaliy, to whom the carrying out of this scheme will undoubtedly be of great benefit, to give this appeal your earnest consideration and, if possible, to endorse the approval which you were good enough to express when the proposal was first laid before

you.

I have the honour to be,

Sir.

Your most obedient and humble Servant,

The Right Honourable

JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN,

C. P. CHATER, Chairman, Jubilee Committee.

Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies.

(Governor to Secretary of State.)

SIR,

GOVERNMENT HOUSE, HONGKONG, 27th September, 1899.

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 153 of 11th ultimo with reference to the expenditure of the funds subscribed for a memorial of Her Majesty's Jubilee in 1897.

2. The money was placed in the hands of Trustees, to be devoted :-

(i.) To the construction of a Road round the Island.

(ii.) The building of a Hospital for Women and Children, and a

Nursing Institute.

3. The plans for the Hospital have been prepared, and the site acquired from the Government, and it is being proceeded with. The construction of the Road has not been undertaken as yet for the following reasons.

4. Immediately after my arrival in the Colony I was addressed by the Director of Public Works by a letter dated 29th November, 1898, in which he urged that some understanding should be arrived at with the Jubilee Committee on the subject of the Jubilee Road, about which there was a deadlock, and suggested that the opinion of the Major-General who had administered the Government previous to my arrival should be asked for. The question at issue was whether the road was to be commenced at the West or the East of the Island. The westernmost section from Kennedy Town to Aberdeen would absorb all the funds subscribed, while many more miles could be made for that money round by the East.

5. The Trustees hold that they are bound by a resolution that the money was to be devoted to the construction of a road round the island, the first section of which was to be from Kennedy Town to Aberdeen round the Western promontory of Mount Davis. The Government bound themselves to continue the road until its completion after the money subscribed was exhausted, and some of the money subscribed was so subscribed after the resolution so binding the Trustees had been published.

6. As previous minutes showed that Major-General BLACK had, while ad- ministering the Government, expressed himself as opposed to this section on Military grounds, I referred the question to him on that point, and received his answer dated 2nd December, 1898. It is to be regretted that Major-General BLACK did not urge this Military objection when the proposition was made or before the laying of the memorial stone, at the point at which the road was to begin, by my pre- decessor, at which ceremony General BLACK was present.