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a view at this stage. But it would obviously be helpful to all of
us at the meeting, and might narrow the issues to be considered by
you afterwards, if I could go to it armed with a preliminary
indication of your thinking.
As you will remember, the proposal which was previously before
you (ie that there should be an Order in Council which conferred
the power to grant indeterminate leases of land in the New Territories
and which also conferred an indeterminate power to govern the New
Territories) was objected to by the Chinese, and it has now been
abandoned. In his minute to the Governor of 2 July (which is at
Flag A behind Mr. Rushford's letter to me of 22 July) and in the
longer Opinion which is immediately behind that, Mr. Griffiths
analyses the various possibilities now open to us. The proposals
that are likely to be put forward for your approval will presumably
be based on that anlysis and next Friday's discussion of it.
V
I have to say, with respect, that I do not agree with all the
reasoning or, at any rate, with the formulation of the reasoning"
in Mr. Griffiths's Opinion. In particular, it seems to me that m
it does not sufficiently distinguish, at certain points, between
the question, on the one hand, of how we could exercise the act of
State that would be involved in our claiming a wider jurisdiction
in the New Territories than we have previously claimed and the
question, on the other hand, of how we could exercise the further
powers in domestic law which derived from that wider jurisdiction.
I also think that the discussion of the possible relevance of the
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