mon
323/28. 31055/27.
In any further communication on this subject, please quote
No. F 4270/3338/10
and address-
not to any person by name,
but to-
'The Under-Secretary of State,"
Foreign Office,
London, S.W.1.
RECLIVE
1 OSEP 1928 COL.OFFICE
FOREIGN OFFICE.
5.W.1.
8th September, 1928.
32
Sir,
In reply to your letter of the 8th August on the
subject of the future status of the New Territories at
Hongkong, I am directed by Lord Cushendun to state that he
desires to offer for the consideration of Mr. Secretary
Amery the following observations on the draft despatch
forming enclosure to your letter under reply.
2. Under the Convention between Great Britain and
China signed at Peking on the 9th June, 1898, the limits
of British territory at Hongkong were enlarged under lease
so as to include the area commonly known as the New
Territories, and it was agreed that "the term of this lease
shall be ninety nine years". Unless therefore some fresh
year 1997.
agreement on the subject is come to in the meantime His
Majesty's Government are bound by the terms of this
Convention to surrender the New Territories to China in the
Should, however, His Majesty's Government adopt
the policy which it is proposed to sanction in paragraph 6
of the draft despatch enclosed in your letter under reply
this might be seized upon as a sign that His Majesty's
Government did not intend to surrender the New Territories
at the end of the lease but intended to retain possession
of them in breach of the terms of the Convention referred
to above.
The Under Secretary of State,
Colonial Office.
3.
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