Translation
F5443/4264/10
of 1935
sir,
COPY
Chinese special Delegate for Foreign
Affairs to H.K. Consul-General,
Canton.
29th June, 1935.
I have the honour to refer to the Hong Kong Government's orders to the residents of Kowloon City to move out and to my letter of 28th June 1933, which was based on the Anglo-Chinese Treaty for the Development of the Territory of Hong Yong concluded on 9th June 1896, wherein it was provided that Kowloon City shall remain under Chinese jurisdiction and in which I asked that the Hong Kong Government may be requested to cancel its original proposal ordering the removal of the Kowloon City residents, as is on record.
[ There follows a detailed statement of complaints
received from inhabitants of Kowloon City J
I have the honour to refer in this connection to a copy (sent me by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) of a Lemorandum sent to the Ministry by H.M. Minister wherein it was stated "The Governor of Hong Kong has not issued any orders to the Kowloon City residents requiring their removal within a specified time limit. Only a notification was cent them, proposing a very generous offer, which most of them have been glad to accept". The statement that most of the residents had been glud to accept the offer refers presumably to the verbal consent given by a portion of the Kowloon City residents. such consent, however, was given solely due to their being frightened at the fate of the Kowloon Tsui residents. They have now understood that Kowloon Tsui ia within leased territory whereas Kowloon City still remains under Chinese sovereignty. As to the orders issued to Ng Cheong and five others by the District Office, Southern District, requiring their removal within specified time, such action evidently is at variance with the spirit of the atatement in H.M. Kinister's memorandum that the Governor of Hong Kong has not issued orders to Kowloon City residenta requiring their removal.
I have the honour to point out that as Kowloon City is Chinese territory and has not been leased to Great Britain, the Government of Hong Kong has not, under any circumstances, the power to order its residents to move elsewhere. As to the frequent summonses issued to the Kowloon City residents by the District Office, Southern District, apart from the consideration of travelling expenses from Kowloon City to Hong Kong, all the residents in that city earn their living by manual labour, and each day they suspend work, they lose that day's income. They consider this a hardship.
In view of the above, I have the honour to write you accordingly and to request that the Government of Hong Kong may be asked not to give further orders to the Kowloon City residents requiring their removal, and that the District Office,
Southern/
2018