2.1.
240
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 and Kowloon, constantly cross to Hongkong to commit depredations in that settlement to the serious injury of British subjects who can obtain no redress against these marauders. Therefore, 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 northernmost 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 the latter may exercise complete control over the same, and take measures for the protection of the good population and the expulsion or punishment of the bad, for bringing the whole locality into order and preventing it becoming a resort for thieves. It is further stipulated and agreed that a rental of Five Hundred Taels of Silver shall be annually paid for the same to the local Chinese Authorities, and that no claim can ever be made by the Chinese