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M
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TOP SECRET
MEMORANDUM
REVISED DRAFT
FAR EASTERN (OFFICIAL) COMMITTEE
THE FUTURE OF HONG KONG
79
1.
Joint Memorandum by the Foreign Office
and the Colonial Office
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The Colony of Hong Kong consists of three
areas, two of which, were ceded outright to Great
Britain. The remaining area is leased. The
areas are:-
(a)
(c)
The island of Hong Kong, ceded outright
to Great Britain by the Nanking Treaty
of 1842, with an area of about
32 square miles.
(b) Part of the Kowloon Peninsula
opposite Hong Kong, ceded outright
by the Peking Convention of 1860,
with an area of about 3 square miles.
The New Territories (sometime s
referred to as "the leased territory
of Kowloon"), 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 359, square miles.
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 the much closer economic
intercommunication between certain parts of the
2.
new territories and the Colony itself, e.g. the fact
that the only existing airport, and all alternative
See map attached (Annex IV)
sites