10
4
23. 8:
2. F.0. 5490/2398/10
Peking 967.
Removal of Chinese residents
in Kowloon City.
The letter from the Foreign Affairs
Department at Canton to His Majesty's Consul
General in that city is of an earlier date
than His Majesty's Minister's telegram No.1,
and we cannot be sure that the basis of the
protest by the Nanking authority is the same as
that of the Centon Government.
The latter take their stand on the
third clause in the 1898 Convention.
If so,
that may be a necessary face-saving step in
the diplomatic game - a formal protest necessary
for the reason that the Chinese authority has
never recognised any modification of the 1898
Conventior.
The facts are that after the
conclusion of the Convention steps were taken
by the Hong Kong Government to assume British
Control over the new territory in April 1899.
The British party met with armed resistance
in the village of Kowloon and a certain amount
of fighting and violence took place before
the British position was established.
We were satisfied that this resistance
was attributable to the Chinese authorities in
Canton and we decided not to permit the
resumption of Chinese Civil authority in Kowloon.
The Chinese Minister in London was told of
this decision by the Foreign Office in a Note
of the 30th May, 1899 (flagged in Eastern 66
below).
On