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Hong Kong.
The Colony of Hong Kong comprises three areas, (the whole comprising the Colony-
(a) The island of Hong Kong, ceded outright to Great
Britain by the Nanking Treaty of 1842.
(b) Part of the Kowloon Peninsula opposite Hong Kong, ceded outright by the Peking Convention of 1860.
(c) The New Territories, leased for 99 years by the
Peking Convention of 1898. They include part of the mainland and a number of islands in the vicinity of a total area of 405 square miles.
2. The reason for the lease of the New Territories, as stated in the preamble to the Convention, was that an extension of Hong Kong territory was necessary for the proper defence and protection of the colony. What has now become an equally important factor is that the main water supply of Hong Kong is in the New Territories. The only airport of the colony (Kai Tak) is also situated in the New Territories, and into this area also now extend the docks and the streets and buildings of Kowloon.
3. In the course of the negotiations which preceded the abolition of extraterritoriality in China, the Chinese Government made a request for the rendition of the New Territories. His Majesty's Government refused to consider this question in connexion with extraterritoriality, but intimated that if the Chinese Government desired that the question of the lease of these territories should be reconsidered, that was a matter which, in the opinion of His Majesty's Government, should be discussed when victory was won. The Chinese Government thereupon reserved their right to raise the question later.
40 The most recent statement of Chinese policy in regard to Hong Kong was contained in the following passage from a speech by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek on the 24th August:-
I wish
"China will not use the occasion of Japan's unconditional surrender as a pretext for disregarding international agreements and infringing upon the rights of our allies. We will not take advantage of this opportunity to despatch troops to take over Hong Kong, nor will we provoke misunderstanding among our allies. to state here that the present status of Hong Kong is regulated by a treaty signed by China and Great Britain. Changes in future will be introduced only through friendly negotiations between the two countries. Our foreign policy is to honour treaties, rely upon law and seek rational readjustments when the requirements of time and actual conditions demand such readjustments. Now that all the leased territories and settlements in China have been one after another returned to China, the leased territory of Kowloon should not remain an exception. But China will settle this last issue through diplomatic talks between the two countries."
5. It is evident from this that the question of the leased territory of Kowloon (the "New Territories referred to in (C) above) will be raised with us in the near future, and that the Chinese Government will almost certainly face us with the proposal that the agreement of 1898 should be terminateu and that the area should revert to Chinese
/sovereignty.