NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN.
In other words, China yielded to the force of circumstances by agreeing only to meet the
military requirements of the powers concerned
without renouncing her jurisdiction in respect
of certain reserved areas.
23.
The implication appears to be that the Chinese are not simply claiming the right of
re-entry into Kowloon of the officials who
exercised jurisdiction there at the time of the Convention of 1898 but are claiming the right to exercise full and exclusive jurisdiction over the City.
24.
Accordingly, the main legal issue is a simple one: namely, is China entitled to juris- diction over Kowloon City? It is conceivable that China might support her claim by reliance on some overriding rights of sovereignty supposed to remain vested in China as lessor of the territory in question. An investigation of the authorities on the status of leases in international law has been made by the Foreign Office Research Lawyer.
A copy of his memoran- are few precedents and
dum is attached. There
little authority on the subject. It is con- cluded that theoretical discussion does not carry the matter very far, but that in an inter- bational lease there is an actual transfer of jurisdictional rights such as a Government exercises over its own territory. It is sub- hitted that the presumption is that all such
rights are transferred to the lessee Government for the duration of the lease subject only to
such reservations as may be made in the instrument granting the lease.
25.
In the present case, the general presump- tion is reinforced by the statement in
Paper G attached.
para. 2/
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