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2 June 1949
JIC (FE) (49) 21 (Final)
crganisation in Hong Kong is to be divcrced from the Scuth China Bureau and is to be accorded special status as dealing with a "foreign concession".
TOPOGRAPHICAL
Terrain
10.
The Cclony of Hong Kong is adjacent to the Province of Kwangtung. The provincial capital is Canton, which is approxi- mately 100 miles from Kewlccn by road and rail.
11.
The strategic land routes from the north for any force threatening cr attacking the Cclony converge on Canton and there- fore the possession of the latter is an essential prerequisite to any such operation. These routes are as follows:-
12.
(a) By rail from Hankow - Changsha Canton - Hong Kong, with a potential capacity of 6 trains each way per day and a potential daily net traffic of 1800 tons in either direction. There is a feeder line from Shanghai joining this route at Changsha via Hanchew and Nanchang, with a potential capacity cf 6 trains each way per day and a pctential daily total of 1800 tcns in either direction.
(b) By road from Hankcw Shiuchow
-
Canton
Hong Kong, with feeder roads from the ports of Shanghai and Ningpo joining the main route in the Shiuchow area. The road capacity of these routes is a maximum of 400 tons per day.
(c) A subsidiary road exists from Swatcw to Canton
with a maximum capacity of 400 tons per day.
The Canton Hong Kong area comprises the Kwangtun hill lands north and north-west of Canten, the Canton Delta, the Kowloon Peninsula and the island cf Hong Kong. The heart of the area is the densely populated Canton Delta,, cne cf the most highly developed agricultural regions in the world. The Kwangtun - New Territories boundary, about 12 miles long and across the neck of the Kowloon Peninsula, is bounded to the west by Han-hui Bay and to the east by Mirs Bay.
through low-lying rice-growing areas on the west side to hilly country on the Mirs Bay side. Communications with the north are limited to the routes described in paragraph 11 above.
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