A Deed of Lease.
1.5.0. 1356/22
Between Laou, wearing a decoration of the first rank, a Director of the Board of War, Censor of the night, Governor General of the Provinces of Kwang-tung and Kwang-si, on the part of the Chinese Government, and Harry Smith Parkes, Esquire, Commander in Chief of the same, on the part of the British Government, to hold in proof of the under-mentioned agreement.
Whereas Kow-loon and its neighborhood situated in the sub-district of Kow-loon in the district of Sun-on, and consisting for the most part of barren hills that cannot be cultivated, has hitherto formed a place of resort for thieves and outlaws, who, availing themselves of the immediate proximity of the city of Victoria, constantly cross to Hongkong, and commit depredations in that settlement to the serious injury of British subjects who can obtain no redress against these marauders, Therefore Laou, the Governor General, and Harry Smith Parkes, the Commissioner, aforesaid, have Agreed and Determined that all that part of the Kowloon peninsula lying south of a line drawn from a point near to but south of the Kowloon Fort to the northern-most point of Stone-Cutters Island, together with that island, as shown in the accompanying map, shall be leased, as a preliminary measure, to Harry Smith Parkes, the Commissioner aforesaid acting on behalf of the British Government, in order that...