Confidential.
71
Copy.
From the General Officer Commanding in China & Hong Kong,
To the Under Secretary of State for War, &c. &c.
Hong Kong,
22nd June 1899.
Sir,
His Excellency the Governor of Hong Kong has informed me that it is the decision of Her Majesty's Government to demand from the Chinese Government a money indemnity in payment of the expenses consequent on the recent disturbances in the New Territory and in the event of this money indemnity being paid to retire from the vicinity of Sham Chun, and to resume practically the frontier originally agreed upon. I understand that Kowloon walled city is however to be retained by us for good.
This is altogether sound as regards Kowloon walled city, which must assuredly be retained, and in fact, I have no great fault to find (if I may be permitted to offer remarks on the decision of the Government) with the decision as a whole.
But, in the possible event of a disinclination or a refusal to pay, on the part of the Chinese Government, I would respectfully point out that:-
1st. There is a chain of hills running direct from Starling Inlet to Deep Bay, bounding the Sham Chun Valley to the North, which would form an excellent frontier.
2nd.