area frim nothing (for there was originally nothing except Kowloon walled city) has been analogous to the development of Hong Kong itself. The rich rice-growing area to the north of the range is quite a different matter.
10. From the point of view of the Port it is the eastern end of the new frontier that would be the more important, as indicated in paragraphs 97 and 98 of Sir David Owen's Report. This would need careful negotiation.
11. Kai Tak airfield is of course in the New Territories but is inside New Kowloon on my suggested "built-up area". But it is insufficient for modern civil aviation and negotiations would be necessary for use of airfields at Ping Shan or elsewhere.
12. Needless to say the waterworks, actual and projected, in the New Territories are of primary importance to the Colony proper. I have not pursued the matter but it has occurred to me that the terms under which we erected and have always maintained the lighthouse at Gap Rock, fifty miles to the south of Hong Kong, might possibly serve as a useful precedent for the Shing Mun reservoir and its future maintenance.
13. In many ways it would be an advantage, both in the matter of waterworks and otherwise, to replace the present unstable tenure ofa bilateral lease, however distant its expiration may at the moment appear, by certain rights in perpetuity provided that such rights are inflexible and have all the modern sanctions of United Nations approval.
14. It would probably be improper for me even to suggest the appropriateness of the machinery for voluntary trusteeship envisaged in
Article 77 of the Charter (Cmd. 6666 page 56).
N.E. Smith
28, Grosvenor Street, W. 1.
29th January, 1946.
Page 20Page 21
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.