CO537-6049 — Page 17

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CHINA

This led to an interview between Mr. Kwok, Chinese Special Representative in Hong Kong, and the Governor, Sir Mark Young. At this interview Mr. Kwok revealed that the statements in the Chinese Press were the result of unauthorised disclosures on the subject. He was asked why the Chinese Government had not approached His Majesty's Government before proceeding to instruct its officials to draw up plans regarding Kowloon City, and he gave no satisfactory explanation of this, but proceeded to re-assert the Chinese claims and to make allegations regarding the conditions inside the City. The Governor did not discuss these points with him but observed that the facts of the matter were set out in the Government statement of 15th Sepember, and that if the Chinese Government wished to raise the subject they would doubtless decide what repre- sentations they wished to make. The Chinese Government did not, at this stage. take up the matter on a diplomatic level, as between Governments. They did, however, issue a public statement on 18th September, 1946, reaffirming their claim to the City. In the meantime, His Majesty's Ambassador to Nanking was instructed to adopt a particularly non-committal attitude towards any questions from the press about the future of Hong Kong and the new territories, and to say that he was not in a position to make any statement on the matter.

13. The facts of the incidents which have brought the present dispute to a head are that on 27th November, 1947, the Hong Kong Government issued. eviction notices against persons living in Kowloon. These were ignored, and on 11th December, 1947, summonses were served. The case was heard before the Kowloon magistrate on 16th December, and he ordered that all persons illegally Occupying Crown land or living in unauthorised structures in Kowloon Walled City should be evicted and the unauthorised structures dismantled. On 22nd December, notice of this order was served on the residents of the Walled City, who were at the same time given information as to where alternative living accommodation could be obtained. The eviction was carried out with police support on 5th January, 1948. In the course of the eviction two individuals were arrested, and on 12th January they were sentenced for obstruction to three months hard labour.

14. On 7th January, 1948, the Po On magistrate visited Kowloon with other officials, including his health and political advisers, and held a meeting at which he addressed a crowd under the Chinese flag. This act was interpreted by a section of the Chinese press as a reaffirmation of Chinese sovereignty.

15. By 12th January, 1948, a number of squatters had returned to Kowloon and police action to remove them met with resistance outside the City from a crowd of about 100 persons. Warning shots were fired, and tear gas used to disperse the crowd. Four persons received minor injuries, one received a flesh wound and one received serious wounds.

16. On 6th January, 1948, the Chinese Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs made a formal protest to His Majesty's Ambassador, and on 8th January left a memorandum with His Majesty's Embassy, Nanking, requesting that the Chinese Government representations be reviewed on humanitarian grounds pending the receipt of a written protest. Various memoranda and notes have been handed by the Chinese Government to His Majesty's Government and by His Majesty's Government to the Chinese Government (Paper E, No. 4).

17. Attempts have been made to settle the issue by finding some practical solution not involving any decision as to jurisdiction over Kowloon. The latest of these was a proposal that the City should be converted into a Garden of Remembrance which should be placed under the care of a board of trustees composed of an equal number of Chinese and British officials.

The Chinese Government accepted this suggestion in principle and at an interview with the Secretary of State the Chinese Ambassador proposed that the Special Commissioner for Foreign Affairs at Hong Kong should be a member of the Board of Management. At a later stage, however, and after the scheme had been submitted to them, the Chinese Government raised the question of space being reserved in the garden for a branch office for the Special Commissioner, whose principal office is now in Hong Kong. If this proposal had been accepted without further qualification it would result that the Special Commissioner, who is a quasi-diplomatic agent, enjoying rights of immunity from jurisdiction, would both be a member of the controlling body and have a branch office in the garden. The proposal that he should have an office without conditions regarding juris- diction was not acceptable to His Majesty's Government. If an enclave under Chinese jurisdiction were to be maintained well within the limits of the leased

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