Canton, dated 29th June, 1935) stating that "as Kowloon City is Chinese Territory and has not been leased to Great Britain, the Government of Hong Kong has not, under any circumstances, the power to order its residents to move elsewhere", and stating that they now wished that Chinese officials should be permitted to resume jurisdiction in Kowloon City. The British Government stood by the Order-in-Council of 27th December, 1899, but it was pointed out that it had never, in fact, been recognized by the Chinese Government.
After consultation with the War Office, Admiralty and Air Ministry it was decided at a meeting held in London on 16th July, 1937, between the Governor of Hong Kong, and representatives of the War Office, Foreign Office and Colonial Office, that any concession to the Chinese in regard to their resuming jurisdiction over Kowloon City, might well be incompatible with the military requirements of Hong Kong, and that once a concession had been allowed in Kowloon City (an area of approximately 8 acres), the Chinese might be expected to "cast covetous eyes on the rest of the New Territories of which the walled City was in the pre-cession era the Chinese administrative centre". Authority was therefore given for the remaining recalcitrant owners in Kowloon to be evicted and an intelligence report dated 30th September, 1937, states that the Chinese authorities had not referred to the matter again either in Canton or Nanking.
They have however raised the matter again at the present time and the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Mark Young, in an interview with Mr. T.W. Kwok (Chinese Special Foreign Affairs Commissioner) on September 15th, was informed that the Chinese Government would not relinguish any treaty rights, was preparing to re-establish its jurisdiction, and has actually given orders that the Chinese civil administration was to be set up in Kowloon City. It seems clear from the foregoing paragraphs that China has never agreed to waive her jurisdiction over the walled city, although no jurisdiction has been exercised there since 1899. The Governor replied to Mr. Kwok that if the Chinese Government wished to raise the question of making an alteration in the status of Kowloon City, they would, presumably, make representations on the subject to His Majesty's Government.