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Act the privileges granted were confined to the limits of the colony. (Signed) Julian Pauncefote
Attorney General. HongKong, 8 Aug. 1866.
Since writing the above I have been favored with a perusal of the Circular Despatch No. 13 of H. E. Sir Rutherford Alcock
dated the 26th of Nov. 1866 and addressed to the British Consuls in China.
The policy adopted by the Earl Clarendon in his Dispatch of the 11th Dec. 1865 is quite in accordance with the principle laid down in the Extract above cited from Mr. Westlake's work.
With Regard however to the case of those Chinese who might claim to have become British Subjects by Virtue of the cession of Hongkong & Kowloon, I believe that they would be found insignificant in number
and that their title to such claim would in most cases be extremely difficult to substantiate, as to Hongkong for the reasons above stated, and as to Kowloon because it contains but a few straggling Villages, the inhabitants of which are of the poorest condition of life and constantly changing owing to the vicinity of the Chinese