CO537-3702 — Page 120

Wily N.L. Smith (Col. Sec. Hong Kong retired) 1/_ Any 1948

(Corres, and acknowledgment on

Hong Kong

NEW TERRITORIES

54145/18/48)

At the risk or being told that this is no longer any of my business I venture a few remarks on the above subject. 1. It is often implied that the 1898 Lease affects nothing more important than a stretch of agricultural and fishing country. But Boundary Street, Kowloon, which roughly marks the end of the Colony proper, runs through heavily built-up areas. Retrocession, simpliciter, of the New Territories would be something analogous to the retention of Westminster and the handing over to a foreign

administration of Chelsea.

2. We are now almost precisely half-way through the ninety-nine years of the Lease, and it is clear that from now onwards the problems will increase by geometrical

progression.

3. The terms of Crown Leases on the far side of the said frontier have all had to be for terms of years not exceeding the Lease, and the cramping of development of factory sites and the like must increase with the passage of each year. This is perhaps the most important of the

immediate problems.

4. One possible line of thought presents itself in the form of what is called "New Kowloon", which may roughly be described as the urban area of what is still technically

the

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