of trustees composed of an equal number of
Chinese and British officials.
In these
negotiations, however, the question arose as to
what law should apply and what court should have
jurisdiction if an offence should be committed
in the Gardens, and as the Chinese insisted that
the jurisdiction should be theirs the attempts
at settlement were unsuccessful. It now appears
to be quite clear that nothing short of the
actual exercise of jurisdiction will be acceptable
to the Chinese. The surrender of jurisdiction
to the Chinese is not acceptable to H.M.G.
19.
Both
It has been proposed that a suggestion
should be made to the Chinese Government that f
they wish further to challenge the exercise of
jurisdiction by the Hong Kong Government over
Kowloon City, they should submit the dispute
to the International Court of Justice.
China and the United Kingdom have made declarat
tions under Article 36 of the Statute of the
International Court of Justice accepting its.
compulsory jurisdiction.
made on the 26th October, 1946, for a period of
five years contains no reservations except that
it is made on the sole conditions of reciprocity.
The declaration of the United Kingdom, made on
the 28th February, 1940, for a period five years
on a basis of reciprocity, remains in force until
notice of termination is given.
20.
The Chinese declaration
The United Kingdom declaration applies
only to disputes arising after 5th February,
1930, with regard to situations or facts sub-
sequent to the same date. The present dispute,
therefore, is excluded and the dispute could only
be adjudicated by the International Court of
Justice with the consent of the United Kingdom
In /
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