S
General compromise which we were considering see draft below (267) and which is still Sir Ralph Stevenson's preferred solution.— (267) and (287).)
see
3. We are back where we were when we considered (281) (see minutes of 23/8 and 2/9), except that the case why the exercise of Chinese jurisdiction in Kowloon Walled City would be inconsistent with the Military requirements
for the defence of Hong Kong is now made out in much more detail than it was before (c.f. (234) and (237)).
4. We still have to decide whether we are or are not going to reverse the decision communicated to the Governor in (278) that we will not take the case to Court or allow ourselves to be put in the position of having it taken there by the Chinese. The points that fall for immediate consideration seem to be therefore:-
(a) does the material in (293) strengthen our
(b)
(c)
case,
do the Chiefs of Staff share what is
apparently the view of the Hong Kong Defence authorities that the results of a loss in Court would be so little worse than a compromise that, because a win in Court would clearly be better than a compromise, we ought to take the case to Court, and
in any event are the Chiefs of Staff
prepared to fight the case with all that this involves e.g. probably havingtheir
-
expert