copy.
14
Hon, C.S.
1.
The alleged "right" of Chinese to enter Hong Kong,
I have again read the following treaties, &c. between China
and Great Britain in search of some provision conferring a right for
Chinose to enter Hong Kong
Treaty of Nanking, 29th August, 1842 (by which H.K. was ceded).
Treaty of Tinetsin, 26th June, 1858,
Convention of Peking, 24th October, 1860 (by which Kowloon was ceded).
Convention of Peking, 9th June, 1898 (ordinarily known as the
Lease of the New Territories).
In none of these documents can I find anything remotely
resembling an undertaking that entry into the Colony shall be open to
all Chinese.
The lease of the New Territories did contain an understanding
that there should be no expropriation or expulsion of the inhabitants
of the leased territory and there is a provision, that the Chinese officials
and people should be allowed as theretofore to use the road from Kowloon
to Hisinan. (This is the trackway that wanders through the hills).
2. It seemed to me that legislation such as the Immigration
Control Ordinance, 1940, would never have been prepared by such an
authority as Sir Grenville Alabaster if there were any treaty on which
the Chinese could base a claim for exemption and I therefore concluded
that the traditional attitude towards the entry of Chinese might be
based on some Proclamation of very early date.
3.
A footnote which appears in phtostatic copies of prints of
the Convention of Peking, 1860, (probably photostatic copies of No. 8
in the Treaties Series published in U.K.) reads as follows:
"A Proclamation, inviting Chinese Merchants to resort
to Hong Kong for the purposes of trade and commerce, under the promise of full protection from interference on the part of the Chinese Authorities, as by the said Proclamation, which is in the words and figures following, appears:-
'A Proclamation.
'By Sir Charles Elliot. *~., &C., &c., &c.
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