CO537-3706 — Page 232

Registry

No.

jil 1352/154/10

Top Secret

Seeret.

Confidential.

Restricted.

Open:

Draft. Despatch:

H.M. Ambassador

Nanking.

No.

Sir,

FOREIGN OFFICE, S.W.1.

February, 1948.

I have received Your Excellency's Despatch

No. 6 (15634/1021/47) of the 3rd January on the subject of the Chinese Government's attempt to

hold elections for the National Assembly in the

old walled city of Kowloon.

2.

This is of course another aspect of the

question of jurisdiction over the so-called Walled

City of Kowloon, in regard to which important

developments have taken place since the date of

It would therefore seem

your despatch.

preferable not to treat elections in the former

walled city as a separate issue but to consider

them in connexion with the incidents of the 5th

and 12th January.

3. On the other hand I agree that the Chinese

assertion regarding the leased territories as a

whole, which is quoted in paragraph 2 of Your

Excellency's despatch under reply, should not be

left unanswered and I concur in your proposal to

reply rejecting it without any supporting argument.

ply

Your reply should of course not make any

distinction between the Walled city and the

remainder of the New Territories;

the Chinese

can be left to assume that we regard the one as

part of the other.

4. For your own information I should make it

clear that His Majesty's Government consider that

the holding of an election by the Chinese in the

New Territories would be contrary to the terms of

A. & E.W.Ltd.

Gp.685

NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN.

(33654) Wt.14696/147 75,000 6,47

the