CODE 18,77
}
Mr Hoare, HKGD, WH312
CONFIDENTIAL
cc: Library Reference Room, CW367
KOWLOON WALLED CITY ETC 6
}
Reference..
HKCK 361|1
No
744110 F27/10
RAK
1. Your minute of 12 August and mine of 19th. I have consulted the files at the Public Record Office (PRO) which provide the following information in amplification of my earlier comments.
a
001
ام
New Territories/Kowloon Peninsula boundary and location of Kowloon City
8
As noted in my earlier minute this boundary originated from the deed of lease concluded between Sir Harry Parkes and the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi in March 1860. A map was attached to the deed. Subsequently a form of survey was conducted by British and Chinese officials. The report of this survey (the PRO copy of which is undated) was enclosed with Sir Hercules Robinson's despatch of 30 April 1862. A map attached to the survey report shows the land boundary, Kowloon City and various other places (but omits Stonecutters' Island which had however been included in the map attached to the deed of lease granted to Parkes). There appears to be no significant difference between the land boundary shown on the two maps, nor in the position of Kowloon City on these maps. I am asking Library Reference Room to obtain copies of these two maps from the PRO, together with a copy of the Chinese text of the deed of lease which is attached to the first map, and the despatch of 30 April 1862 with the enclosed survey report (references MPG813 and C0129/ 85 pages 438-442). The English text of the deed is annexed herewith. As far as I have been able to trace the New Territories/ Kowloon Peninsula boundary was not altered as a result of the surveys carried out under the terms of the Convention of 1898. For a description of Kowloon City and its location by the Colonial Secretary, J H Stewart Lockhart, in August 1898 please refer to my minute of 19 August (para 1(c)). The Report on the New Territories published in the Hong Kong Government Gazette for 17 August 1901 (C0132/42 page 1391) referred to a survey being made by British officials of the New Territories and a more detailed survey which had to been made of Kowloon City. I have not seen the reports of these surveys but could endeavour to trace them if necessary.
The boundary between the New Territories and China On the map attached to the Convention of 1898 the boundary was marked fairly roughly with a straight line running from a point just north of the mouth of the Shumchun river on Deep Bay to the western end of the inlet (not named on this map but known as Starling Inlet) joining Mirs Bay. The Convention said: "the exact boundaries shall be hereafter fixed when proper surveys have been made by officials app- ointed by the two governments". A form of survey was duly undertaken, resulting in a delimitation agreement concluded
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CONFIDENTIAL
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