CO537-1657 — Page 28

3.

"any kind within the city. If the Military remove from the city,

"the civil population is sure to follow, so there will be no one

"remaining over whom a Chinese officer could exercise jurisdiction

In any case it appears to be entirely inconsistent

with the military requirements for the defence of Hong Kong to

"allow a garrison town like Kowloon to be occupied permanently by

"Chinese military officers and troops. If that view be accepted,

"there seems to be nothing to justify the retention of Chinese

"jurisdiction in any shape or form within the city, for without

"the garrison the population will, it is certain, be reduced to

"nothing.

#t

Should any civilians remain after the removal of the

"military, they might be allowed to establish a native tribunal

"presided over by the elders and gentry, but subject, of course,

"in the same way as the other native tribunals throughout the

"territory, to the control of the travelling magistrate, and

"possessing the right of appeal to the Council of the Tung, and

"finally to the Commissioner."

3.

After the taking possession of Kowloon City by

British Authorities in May, 1899, and the expulsion of the Chinese

military and civil officials therefrom, probably because while

they remained there the place was a centre of unrest and intrigue

against the authority of the Hong Kong Government, very few

changes occurred in the old walled city itself until the Colony

was occupied by the Japanese during the recent war, although a

mass of houses shops and streets of the Chinese village-type grew

up outside the city on the south, east and west sides. In 1941

the two most prominent buildings within the walled city were a

building of the Chinese temple-type which was used as a free

school and another building used as a home for aged women, run

by a charitable society. The few other buildings were Chinese