CO129-287 - Public Offices & Others - 1898 — Page 293

which may come and go and lie there at their pleasure, and for the convenience movement of the officials and people within the city.

When hereafter China constructs a railway to the boundary of the Kowloon territ FAIRS OF CHINA. under British control, arrangements shall be discussed.

It is further understood that there will be no expropriation or expulsion of CONFIDENTIAL., inbabitants of the district included within the extension, and that if land is required: public offices, fortifications, or the like official purposes, it shall be bought at a price.

If cases of extradition of criminals occur they shall be dealt with in accJaj with the existing Treaties between Great Britain and China and the Hong K Regulations.

C The area leased to Great Britain, as shown on the annexed map, includes the wat of Mirs Bay and Deep Bay, but it is agreed that Chinese vessels of war, whether neut or otherwise, shall retain the right to use those waters.

This Convention shall come into force on the 1st day of July, 1898, being 13th day of the 5th moon of the 24th year of Kuang Hsü. It shall be ratified by Sovereigns of the two countries, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in London soon as possible.

In witness whereof, &c.

Q

[July 11

287c.o.

17706

SECTION 3.

6 UG

[AMENDED SECTION.]

No. 1.

Sir C. MacDonald to the Marquess of Salisbury.--(Received July 11.)

b. 102.) Lord,

Peking, May 27, 1895. THE inclosed draft. Convention for the extension of Hong Kong territory represents results of the negotiations with the Yamén already reported to your Lordship by egraph.

I cannot say that I had any great difficulty in inducing the Yamên to agree in ciple to an extension of Hong Kong territory, for they recognized readily enough necessity for it. They had in contemplation, however, only such a limited extension would enable the British authorities to fortify both sides of Hong Kong Harbour and defend the hills overlooking it, and expressed their hopes that my demands would not further.

This was at an interview on the 5th April.

I told them that nothing more would be asked than was necessary for the defence Hong Kong, but I was unable at the moment to give them any precise details, for I not myself know what was wanted. I had already applied to the Acting Governor Hong Hong, and from him I received on the 13th April a chart showing the present its of British territory, the maximum extension considered desirable by the military horities, and a frontier which would be acceptable if this maximum could not be mined. He informed me, in reply to subsequent inquiry, that a copy of this chart had en sent to the Colonial Office on the 9th November, 1894, so that I was able to refer

in my telegrams to your Lordship.

With the chart the Acting Governor inclosed a Memorandum by General Barker, awn up in 1894, and his own observations on it, and copies of letters from the Hong branch of the Navy League. These documents contained sundry arguments in our of an extension of Hong Kong territory, such as the necessity for a new rifle- age and for exercise ground for the troops, the inadequacy of cemetery accommodation Hong Kong and the like; but in view of the fact that, as far as I could estimate, the area manded amounted to some 200 square miles, I did not think it desirable to put forward ese considerations in presenting the case to the Yamén, for they would have met me h offers to give us all territory required for the purposes named.

Accordingly, in the Memorandum I presented to them I confined myself to demon- ating the strategical necessity of the line from Mirs Bay to Deep Bay, shown on the g Kong Chart as our frontier, and of the islands to the south and west being also ced under our jurisdiction, and I supplied them with a tracing of the chart showing e limits required.

I also represented the difficulty of China's position in case war were threatened tween England and another Power, for she could neither grant nor refuse assent to the ing of mines on the Chinese side of the harbour of Hong Kong without giving offence one side or the other.

When I called a day or two later to discuss the mattor, the Ministers showed that ey had been far from expecting a demand for so large an extension as that dicated. I invited them to compare it with what had been leased to Germany at Kiao- an and to Russia in Liaotung, à comparison I was able to make the more effectively at I had, through the kindness of Sir Edward Seymour, been supplied with maps drawn The same scale of these different concessions.

The Yamên tried to put Wei-hai Wei into the balance, but I told them that e-hai Wei had been leased to us as much in their interests as our own, and that we bald give it up to-morrow if Russia would leave Port Arthur. I was not, I said, respon- de for the amount of territory asked. It had been determined by the military autho

es at Hong Kong so long as 1894, and we should, long before this, have invited ina to make over to us what was necessary for the Colony's safety had we not been said of setting an example to other Powers. The time was now opportune for China

make the concession to us without any risk of counter-claims.

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