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and protection of the colony. What has now
become an equally important factor is that
the main water supply of Hong Kong is in the
New Territories.
3.
In the course of the negotiations which
preceded the abolition of extraterritoriality
in China, the Chinese Government made a
request for the rendition of the New
Territories.
His Majesty's Government refused
to consider this question in connexion with
extra-territoriality, but agreed that it.
might be discussed with the Chinese Government
after the war. Almost certainly the Chinese
Government will then face us with the proposal
that the agreement of 1898 should be
terminated and that the area should revert to
Chinese sovereignty.
4. At no time have the Chinese Government
raised the question of the status of Hong Kong
as a whole, but it is generally recognised that
their ultimate object is the "recovery" of the
whole colony ceded to Great Britain in 1842 and
1860. The Generalissimo, in his book "China's
Destiny", published in 1943, made it clear that
Hong Kong is regarded as properly belonging to
China and its recovery is merely being postponed.
In support of their claim, the Chinese can
point to the fact that Hong Kong is geographically
and economically a part of China and that its
5.
population is overwhelmingly Chinese. They
would probably also claim that it was wrested from
them under the "unequal treaties" and that its
rendition would erase the last of China's
humiliations suffered under these treaties.
Against this we can set the following
considerations:
-
(a) At/
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NOTHING
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ΤΟ
BE
WRITTEN
IN THIS
MARGIN.
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