CO537-2187 — Page 153

>

54345/47

SECRET

коз

Colonial Office,

Downing Street,

S.W.1.

12th April, 1947.

hun

dear hasdonance

I daresay you have been wondering what has happened to the paper on the future of Hong Kong which was under discussion when you were here.

In

You will recall that at the meeting of the Far Eastern (Official) Committee on the 11th December, which you attended, it was decided that the paper then under submission should be revised in certain respects, and expanded so as to bring out the reasons for retaining Hong Kong. the light of the discussion at that meeting, I prepared a revised draft which, first of all, set out the case for retaining the ceded part of Hong Kong and resisting any claim for its retro- cession. It then stated the need for a reassuring public statement and then, proceeding from the assumption that there was no intention to return the ceded part of Hong Kong to China, examined the line to be taken if and when discussions took place with the Chinese on the subject of the new territories. The conclusion which the paper reached on this point was that we should be prepared, if necessary, to the premature termination of the lease of the New Territories on the following conditions:-

(a)

the redrawing of the frontier between the ceded territory and the leased territory so as to include within the ceded territory the whole of the built-up area of Kowloon and certain islands which at present fall within the leased territory:

D.M. MACDOUGALL, ESQ., C.M.G.

/(b)