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GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
香港下亞畢道
本署檔號 OUR REF.: SCR 3/3371/80
來函檔號 YOUR REF.:
31 December 1981
LAST PAPER
P. J. Williamson, Esq.,
HK&GD,
HEK 361/2
IALS, T
MONDAY NO. 5
FCO.
Dear Pamik,
IND
Kowloon Walled City:
Registration
√2AF5721
See HKR 361/1
of instruments affecting land transactions
You will wish to be aware of a recent decision by the Registrar General to accept for registration as a lis pendens a writ of summons relating to a land transaction in the Kowloon Walled City. (All this took place in July: the file was unfortunately put away in error).
2.
1982
The problem was to determine whether the Registrar General was obliged to register the writ under the Land Registration Ordinance, which does not distinguish between the Kowloon Walled City and any other land in the Colony; or whether the provisions of the Second Convention of Peking would forbid him from doing so. The conclusion reached was that the Registrar General was bound to register the writ. Not only does the Land Registration Ordinance make no distinction between land in the Walled City and elsewhere, but the Kowloon City Order in Council of 1899 stated that:
3.
(i)
(ii)
A
The city of Kowloon was part and parcel of the Colony of Hong Kong; and
16
The provisions of the New Territories Order in Council would apply to the city of Kowloon as if the said city had by the said Order in Council been declared to be part and parcel of the Colony of Hong Kong.
In discussions which led to this decision, the Crown Solicitor produced some interesting thoughts on the precise status of land within the Kowloon Walled City. As you will see from para 11 of his enclosed memorandum, this has some potentially far-reaching implications. These are currently being considered, and I shall write further when we have reached some conclusions.
Darny New Year.
Yours ever
Richard
(R. P. Margolis) Deputy Political Adviser
COMEDENTIAL