146
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It was understood by the Convention that
there would be no expropriation or expulsion of the inhabitants and it, therefore, became necesstry to constitute some tribunal which should have authori- ty to deal with the numerous claims in relation to the land in the new territories which were certain
as well to be made on behalf of those inhabitants, as by others. It seems clear that for the term mentioned in the Convention, namely 99 years, (from I presume the 1st. July 1898, when the Convention came into force) the land in the New Territories belongs to
the Crown, subject to the allowance of bone fide
titles existing when the new Convention came into
force. Now, although, as pointed out in the Secretary of State's Despatch of the 6th.January 1899, "the
examination into the titles should not be of too
technical a nature and where lengthened occupation
or improvements can be shown with no adverse claims
from private individuals, a Government title should
be granted even if no other is forthcoming," yet it
is clear that claims must be looked into, to see if
they are bona fide.
I should not be surprised to find claims
asserted to nearly all the land, clains some of
which would not have been allowed by the Chinese
Authorities, if they had remained in possession.
It seems to me that the best way will be to
deal liberally with bona fide claims, but it is not
at all unlikely that there will be also some utterly
groundless pretentious advanced to right over large
traets of land and especially of foreshore; nor,
from what I already hear, is it unlikely that, in
some cares, forged Chinese documents will be forth-
coming. Not only will simple rustice have to be
dealb