Hongkong, Nov. 29.
Considerable feeling has been aroused by the Government's warning that the bathing beaches at North Point and Kennedy Town may possibly have to disappear to snake room for commercial development. A question upon the subject was asked in the Legislative Council, but the inquirer received little satisfaction, the Colonial Secretary merely' regretting the necessity of depriving the people of bathing facilities and refusing to hold out any prospect of Government making itself responsible for cheap transport to the suitable bays at Stonecutter's and in the more distant parts of the island.
During the long, sultry Hongkong summer the most popular form of recreation is sea-bathing. Both on the island itself and on the peninsula there are many beautiful sandy stretches of foreshore, and to the stranger it may seem inevitable that the beaches near to the city itself, and within the har-hour limits, now occupied solely by bathing matsheds, will, sooner or later, come within the grasp of the business octopus which is continually stretching out its tentacles for more and more land. But residents view the matter from a different standpoint. The beaches at North Point and Kennedy Town are the only ones served by the tramway. Last year they were cused by considerably over 60,000 people. If they go, a launch or x motor-car will he necessary to secure a "dip in the briny" under anything like satisfactory conditions, and that, of course, means that. the creat bulk of these 60,000 people will be cut off from one of their principal pleasures during the summer months.
Quite naturally there is an out-regarding the Tack of consid. eration shown to the '"under-dog." Letters are appearing in the papers asking whether the London County Council would dare to build upon open spaces or to close popular holiday resorts necessary to the health of the populace simply on the ground that they were required for business purposes. Perhaps we shall hear more on the subject when the report of Sir Maurice Fitzgerald is being considered. Bir Maurice, who is a partner in the urm_ of Coode, Matthews, Fitzgerald. & Wilson, consulting engineers for harbours to the Crown Agents, has been in the Colony for some days past at the invitation of the Government, studying the har-pour and its needs, for the purpose of making a report on its future development. He has now completed his survey of the situation and leaves for Singapore to-morrow.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.