Registry
No.
jil 1352/154/10
Top Secret
Seeret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Open:
Draft. Despatch:
H.M. Ambassador
Nanking.
No.
Sir,
FOREIGN OFFICE, S.W.1.
February, 1948.
I have received Your Excellency's Despatch
No. 6 (15634/1021/47) of the 3rd January on the subject of the Chinese Government's attempt to
hold elections for the National Assembly in the
old walled city of Kowloon.
2.
This is of course another aspect of the
question of jurisdiction over the so-called Walled
City of Kowloon, in regard to which important
developments have taken place since the date of
It would therefore seem
your despatch.
preferable not to treat elections in the former
walled city as a separate issue but to consider
them in connexion with the incidents of the 5th
and 12th January.
3. On the other hand I agree that the Chinese
assertion regarding the leased territories as a
whole, which is quoted in paragraph 2 of Your
Excellency's despatch under reply, should not be
left unanswered and I concur in your proposal to
reply rejecting it without any supporting argument.
ply
Your reply should of course not make any
distinction between the Walled city and the
remainder of the New Territories;
the Chinese
can be left to assume that we regard the one as
part of the other.
4. For your own information I should make it
clear that His Majesty's Government consider that
the holding of an election by the Chinese in the
New Territories would be contrary to the terms of
A. & E.W.Ltd.
Gp.685
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN.
(33654) Wt.14696/147 75,000 6,47
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