2.
New Territories to be amplified by amending the
third sentence of this paragraph to read "I assume
that it would be the wish of H.M.G. that the land
and buildings which would be required by the
Municipality should be leased to them at a nominal
rental for the period of 75 years renewable in the
case of the Island and the ceded portion of the
Kowloon Peninsula and, in the case of those within
the administrative area of the Municipality (i.e.
New Kowloon) which would lie within the boundaries
of the New Territories, on the usual condition as
to the duration of the term (occasioned by the fact
that the New Territories are held on lease and do
not form part of the ceded portion of the Colony)
which it has been customary to include in all leases
relating to land and buildings in those territories."
I assume that it is intended that the enclosures to
Sir M. Young's despatch No.145 of 22nd October, 1946, should
be published with that despatch, and I suggest that the
following amendments should be made to enclosure 7 to
that despatch (The Extent and Exercise of the Franchise).
The references are to the paragraphs and pages of that
enclosure:·
(a) Paragraph 4 Deletion of last sentence on
page 2.
(b) Paragraph 7 Insert word "local" before
"Portuguese" in second sub-paragraph.
(c) Paragraph 9 For last sub-paragraph on the
bottom of page 6 and the first two sub-paragraphs
on page 7 substitute "Lest there should be any
tendency on the part of irresponsible persons to
procure an excessive number of nominations, it
might be desirable to require the nomination papers
to be signed by the proposer and seconder and
18 (instead of 8) other electors."