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2. You ask whether a legal interpretation has been made of Article VI of the Convention of Peking. The short answer is that I do not know. Our Section files yield nothing on that specific point; and the Legal Adviser was unable to say, with- out further research, whether an interpretation existed. I have asked Library and Records Department to send me any rele- vant material they can find. This may arrive too late to be of use to you, but I trust it would still be of interest to your office.
3. As you point out, the Convention does not mention Stonecutters Island and does not speak of holding Kowloon in perpetuity. The inclusion of Stonecutters Island with the south- ern tip of Kowloon, is assured in Harry Parkes's lease; and the lease is clearly taken as the basis of Article VI of the Conven- tion. The notion, if not the actual stipulation of holding Kowloon and Stonecutters Island "in perpetuity", may also derive in part from the understanding that the lease given to Parkes was granted in perpetuity (see the wording of Article VI).
4. As you will see from Parkes's Official Communication of 20 March 1860, to Governor Laou, he suggests that one way to overcome the problems presented by the "bad population" of Kowloon would be for the Chinese authorities to
"mark out a boundary and cede the ground within it to the British Government in the same manner as Hong Kong my under- lining7, when it would be in the power of the latter to exercise complete jurisdiction over the place."
Although it is not spelt out, the notion of ceding in perpetuity would seem to be implicit in Parkes's proposal. In the event, a temporary lease of the territory in question was arranged, pend- ing a permanent settlement. However, the very terms of the lease appear, to my eye at least, to contain an element of conditionality. In agreeing the annual rental for the lease, the deed of lease stipulates that
"no claim can ever be made by the Chinese Government for the return of the said ground as long as my underlining7 the British Government punctually pay to them the said amount of rent."
I do not know how this would strike a legal mind.
5. Another argument in support of the claim that Kowloon has been ceded in perpetuity would appear to be the one you put forward yourself, that so long as Hong Kong island is a British colony, the UK has a right to Kowloon as its dependency, ie Kowloon may also be regarded as a colony in the legal sense. Such is the view of
N
/Professor P B Harris,
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