CO537-2188 — Page 334

2.

New Territories to be amplified by amending the

third sentence of this paragraph to read "I assume

that it would be the wish of H.M.G. that the land

and buildings which would be required by the

Municipality should be leased to them at a nominal

rental for the period of 75 years renewable in the

case of the Island and the ceded portion of the

Kowloon Peninsula and, in the case of those within

the administrative area of the Municipality (i.e.

New Kowloon) which would lie within the boundaries

of the New Territories, on the usual condition as

to the duration of the term (occasioned by the fact

that the New Territories are held on lease and do

not form part of the ceded portion of the Colony)

which it has been customary to include in all leases

relating to land and buildings in those territories."

I assume that it is intended that the enclosures to

Sir M. Young's despatch No.145 of 22nd October, 1946, should

be published with that despatch, and I suggest that the

following amendments should be made to enclosure 7 to

that despatch (The Extent and Exercise of the Franchise).

The references are to the paragraphs and pages of that

enclosure:·

(a) Paragraph 4 Deletion of last sentence on

page 2.

(b) Paragraph 7 Insert word "local" before

"Portuguese" in second sub-paragraph.

(c) Paragraph 9 For last sub-paragraph on the

bottom of page 6 and the first two sub-paragraphs

on page 7 substitute "Lest there should be any

tendency on the part of irresponsible persons to

procure an excessive number of nominations, it

might be desirable to require the nomination papers

to be signed by the proposer and seconder and

18 (instead of 8) other electors."