V.
1.54
1.
2.
Hong Kong, at the time of its cession to Great Britain
by the Treaty of Nanking a hundred years ago, was a
desolate island with no inhabitants except a few
groups of fishermen. It has grown under the
direction of the British Government to be one of the
great sea ports of the world based upon Eritish law
and order and on the enterprise of all peoples and
1 nations alike.
The British policy has been and will continue to be
thɛt Hong Kong should be a free port for the services
of all trade and commerce in the Far Esst. Hong Kong
is the depot for an incessant flow of people and goods
in and out of China. of the population of nearly
a million residents which it had attained, all had
freely come in of their own choice or were the
children of immigrants who had done so.
prefer to live under Chinese rule there is no let or
hindrance to their moving over the border for the
purpose.
If any
3. It has been a centre of settled and orderly conditions
for the benefit of all countries having relations with
Chink throughout the prolonged era of revolutionary
disturbance in South China.
4.
[
This special role of
Hong Kong may have no less a value in post war years.
When the Japanese overran Shanghai and South China
i the Colony was for 3 years up to December 1941 able to
serve as a channel of supplies to China and a refuge
for hundreds of thousands of displaced and largely
destitute Chinese people, and for numers of foreign
nɛtionɛls in China.
r[in
5. Immediately after the war in the uncertain
political and economic conditions in Chinɛ: when the
protection of extra-territorial rights is no
longer