81
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
بس
Reference :-
C.O. 882
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
26117.
SER,
No. 48.
COLONIAL OFFICE to FOREIGN OFFICE.
Downing Street, November 30, 1898. I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Chamberlain to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 21st instant, enclosing a copy of a despatch and enclosures from Her Majesty's Minister at Peking on the subject of the extension of the Hong Kong boun- dary. I am also to acknowledge the receipt of your further letter of the same date,t enclosing a copy of a letter from the China Association on the same subject, and indi- cating the reply proposed to be returned.
23608.
(Confidential.)
SI,
No. 49.
I am, &c.,
C. P. LUCAS.
COLONIAL OFFICE to ADMIRALTY.
[Answered by No. 54.]
Downing Street, November 30, 1898. WITH reference to the letter from this office of the 23rd June, I am directed by Mr. Secretary Chamberlain to transmit to you, to be laid before the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, a copy of a report§ by Mr. J. H. Stewart Lockhart, C.M.G., of his recent visit to the newly-acquired territory in the vicinity of Hong Kong.
2. Their Lordships will doubtless notice the reference made by Mr. Lockhart on page 3 of his report to the necessity for a proper survey of Deep Bay; and I am also to request that their attention may be called to the mention made of the assistance ren- dered by the officers and crew of H.M.S." Plover."
23608.
SIB,
(Confidential.)
No. 50.
COLONIAL OFFICE to WAR OFFICE.
I am, &c.,
C. P. LUCAS.
Downing Street, November 30, 1898. WITH reference to the letter from this office of the 23rd June,|| I am directed by Mr. Secretary Chamberlain to transmit to you, to be laid before the Marquess of Lansdowne, a copy of a reports by Mr. J. H. Stewart Lockhart, C.M.G., of his recent visit to the newly-acquired territory in the vicinity of Hong Kong.
2. I am to request that Mr. Chamberlain may be favoured with any observations that Lord Lansdowne may have to make in connection with the various subjects dealt with in this report, and that His Lordship's attention may be called to the mention made in it of the officer and non-commissioned officer of the Royal Engineers who accom- panied Mr. Lockhart.
I am, &c.,
C. P. LUCAS.
• No. 45.
↑ No. 44.
‡ No. 8.
No. 4.
f No. 38.
27516.
No. 51.
MEMORANDUM on SOME LEGAL ASPECTS of the HỌNG KONG EXTEN- SION, by MR. W. MEIGH GOODMAN, ATTORNEY-GENERAL OF HONG KONG, dated December, 1808.
Sm,
(Received December 7, 1898.) [Answered by No. 60.]
1. As requested by you, I forward for the consideration of the Right Honour- able the Secretary of State, the following remarks on the subject of the application of the laws of Hong Kong to the newly acquired territories thereto adjacent.
2. By Clause 1 of Her Majesty's Order in Council of 20th October, 1898, those territories are declared to be "part and parcel of the Colony of Hong Kong in like manner and for all intents and purposes as if they had originally formed part of the said Colony."
By Clause 2, the Governor, by and with the advice of the Legislative Council of the Colony, is empowered to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the said territories as part of the Colony,
By Clause 8, it is ordered that, from a date to be fixed by the Proclamation of the Governor, all laws and Ordinances which shall at such date be in force in the Colony of Hong Kong shall take effect in the said territories, and shall remain in force therein, until altered or repealed by Her Majesty or by the Governor, by and with the advice or consent of the Legislative Council.
By Clause 4, the exercise of jurisdiction by the Chinese officials then stationed within the City of Kowloon is continued therein, except in so far as may be inconsistent with the military requirements for the defence of Hong Kong.
3. I call special attention to this Order in Council, because its terms appear to me to settle the problem as to what system of laws and generally what laws should be applied to the new territories, having regard to their physical nature, their situation, and the characteristics of the inhabitants, and to narrow the matter down to the question "should the new territories be exempted from the application of any, and, if so, what particular laws or Ordinances in force in Hong Kong
4. Such exemption, if desired, might conveniently be affected by an, Ordinance passed in Hong Kong immediately after the date fixed by the Governor's Proclamation for the Hong Kong laws and Ordinances to take effect in the new territories.
5. For my present purpose, the law in force in Hong Kong may be deemed to
consist of-
(a) Such of the laws of England as existed when the Colony obtained a local legislature, that is to say, on the 5th April, 1843, except so far as the said laws are in- applicable to the local circumstances of the Colony or its inhabitants (see section 7 of Ordinance 12 of 1879); and
(3) Local Ordinances passed in Hong Kong adding to, altering, or repealing the law in force on 5th April, 1848.
I cannot recall to mind, as I write, any Imperial Legislation extending to Hong Kong which requires special consideration in relation to the extension of the Colony.
6. It is hardly necessary, in this Memorandum, to enter into the question as to whether any, and if so which, of the laws of England in force on 5th April, 1843, re- ferred to in paragraph 5 (a), should be specially included in an exempting Ordinance, because such laws were only originally brought into force in Hong Kong so far as they were not inapplicable to the local circumstances of the Colony or its inhabitants." It remains, therefore, to decide whether any of the local Ordinances should be exempted by Ordinance.
*
7. It might, at first sight, appear that the new rugged, mountainous territories, partly on the mainland, partly consisting of islands, and inhabited for the most part by Chinese agricultural peasants and Chinese fishermen or coolies, were not ripe for the somewhat elaborate legislation of Hong Kong; but, on reading the Ordinances them selves, one finds but few which would, in actual practice, canse hardship or difficulty. Indeed, in the United Kingdom itself, there must have been districts where, may a hundred years ago, peasants lived the simplest lives, all unconscious of most of the elaborate laws in force, and without experiencing any embarrassment so long as they
L