HONG KONG NEW TERRITORIES
21
In view of the change of Ministers, it may be convenient to have this brief general note of the
points involved. A full statement of the conflicting Foreign Office and Hong Kong Government attitude can be read in the enclosures in No.1 in this file.)
The Colony of Hong Kong comprises the
Island of Victoria with a small portion of Chinese mainland, Kowloon, these respectively forming the Northern and Southern shores of Hong Kong Harbour.
In order to secure the Northern Shore (Kowloon) a
convention was made with China in 1898 for the lease
to His Majesty's Government for a period of 99 years of a strip of the hinterland surrounding Kowloon on the
north. This strip is known as the New Territories.
Under the convention the lease is not merely a land lease but a lease of all sovereign rights for the
99 year period.
is
The position now is that the Southern side
of the Harbour is fully developed, and the Northern side is rapidly developing but was being held up by the uncertainty as to security of tenure. Land
for large undertakings would only be taken up if
firms and persons interested could be given leases beyond the unexpired portion of His Majesty's
Government's lease of the New Territories from China.
The standard form of land lease in Hong Kong is
75 years.
If land in the New Territories were now to be leased to an individual for a 75 year term it would exceed the period of our lease from China.
The Foreign Office view is that leases by the
Hong Kong Government to individuals must be confined
on