CONFIDENTIAL
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British Overseas Press Service,
New York,
November 30th, 1945.
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SONG KONG
In the course of social contacts with official and other influential Chinese in New York something has been learned of the Chinese viewpoint regarding the future of Hongkong.
this
1. It does not appear that Hongkong is at the moment a "sore point" of a nature such an actively to influence their opinion upon Britain. Not that the subject has been forgotten; for I believe it can fairly be said that all Chinese "want it back". If it is not an immediate and active issue in their minds, primarily is for two reasons, First, a preoccupation with the relatively far more important matters of defeating Japan, and thereafter recovering far larger and vastly more important "Chinese" territories. Second, an increasing willingness to repose trust in the progressive development of British goodwill and generosity towards China, and a desire to make no untimely demand which might prejudice that development and embarrass present satisfactory Sino-British relations. Furthermor there seems to exist few fears that longkong will not come back; on the contrary there is a confident assurance that in any case it will in due time return to Chins, whether with ill or good grace on Britain's part. Expression of an aggressive viewpoint was negligible.
2. There have been published in the U.S.A. some Chinese opinions regarding Hongkong's future. Two relatively important opinions are given hereunders
(a) Prof. 8. H. Chow, member of the People's Political Council of the Chinese Government; professor of international law and inter- national relations, wrote on July 26, 1945, in "Contemporary China" published in New York by the Chinese News Service, an organ of the Chinese M.0.I. in the U.S.A., as follows:
"As regards the question of Hongkong, which will no longer be
very useful as a British strategical post in the Far East, it seems the British Government could well afford to rectify a century-old wrong done to China by returning to her right after the war this island as a token of mutual friendship and con- fidence between the two great nations and allies in the war.
It is all the more important that an early agreement on the return of Hongkong to China be reached, in view of the fact that Great Britain is apt to link the question of Kowloon with that of Hongkong. From the British point of view, Hongkong is peculiar because, while the whole area was a British colony, one part of it was ceded as a result of the two Anglo-Chinese wars in the nineteenth century and the other portion was only leased for a term of years which still has fifty-five years to TU23. ↑ Hongkong was considered indefensible without the pro- tection of Kowloon peninsula across the bay, and what is more, 'the two portions of the colony form a single economic unit and one could hardly be administered if cut off from the other.'
For this reason, the British delegation at the Washington Conference of 1991-22 made an exception of Kowloon in the claration of British policy to return leased territories to Chinese administration; and obviously for the same reason, the British Government declined again to discuss the question of Kowloon during the recent negotiation for relinquishing British extraterritorial rights in China. It seems, therefore, täat we could only look to an early settlement of the funda- mental issue of Hongkong for the termination of the lease of Kowloon territority. Of course, in return for this important friendly gesture on the part of Britain, the Chinese nation would
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