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11. No outright mention is made here of a possible retrocession of Hong Kong to China and the reference to a "reconstruction in the Far East" could be taken to
mean a regional settlement devised after the war by the great powers in which Hong Kong might have a special role to play. The idea of some such collective arrangement came under consideration during these years.
12. It is not clear whether the joint Colonial Office- Foreign Office draft was ever submitted to the Cabinet. In all events, its suggestions on Hong Kong were not incorporated into Government policy at the end of the war and were never communicated to the Chinese.
It
13. A paper dated 23 October 1945, prepared by the Cabinet Office Far Eastern Civil Planning Unit, anticipated that the Chinese Government would shortly raise the question of terminating the 1898 agreement. went on to say it was generally recognised that China's ultimate object was the recovery of the whole colony. It then put forward various arguments against the Chinese claim. It ended by examining four possible concessions to Chinese demands, without, however, attempting to choose among them. These concessions were:
retrocession of the New Territories to China; measures of joint Sino-British management in some utilities and in the urban district of the New Territories;
←
(a) (b)
(c)
cession of British sovereignty of Hong Kong to China, while retaining a special position under a lease or other arrangement; (d) outright cession of Hong Kong to China.
Again, it is not clear how far discussion
of this paper went.
EFFECTS OF CHINESE SOVEREIGNTY ON BRITISH ADMINISTRATION
14. The Legal Advisers will be best placed to comment on this.
However, provided that an acceptance of ultimate Chinese sovereignty over Hong Kong nonetheless left Britain free to continue its administration of the colony, there
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