See
4430
This means, in effect, that under actually existing conditions a powerful attack from overseas would put
the trade, and even the lives, of the civil population
resident in the Kowloon Peninsula and along the harbour front of Hongkong island at the mercy of the enemy who could also occupy the whole of the New Territories before relief could reach the Colony.
3.
You will recollect that the Convention
between Great Britain and China respecting the extension of Hongkong Territory, signed at Peking on 9th June 1898(please see Hertslet's China Treaties Volume 1
page 120), was made because it had "for many years past been recognized that an extension of Hongkong Territory is necessary for the proper defence and protection of the Colony". But it now appears that the Naval and Military forces at present available for the defence of this Colony would not be able to hold any part of the New Territories against a powerful enemy, and that it would therefore be open
to such an enemy to establish himself along the ridge of the hill range above Kowloon, which completely dominates Hongkong harbour, and from which position he could direct fire upon the principal docks, forts, and naval and military establishments of the Colony, as well as upon all shipping in the harbour.
4.
I understand from the Naval Commander- in-Chief that a period of at least six weeks, and quite probably eight weeks, would almost inevitably elapse before the British fleet could reach Hongkong. Within that period, under actually existing conditions, an enemy could so desperately injure the commercial life of Hongkong that the recovery would be very slow. And, although the Naval and Military Authorities
believe