CO129-302 - Public Offices - 1900 — Page 445

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Convention was analogous to the position of the

City of Kinchow in regard to the Convention for

the leage of Port Arthur to the Russians, who would

they said, be largely guided in dealing with Kin-

chow by British action concerning Kowloon City.

If the provisions of our Convention were disregard-

ed in the case of Kowloon, there was little doubt

but that the Chinese Goverment would be also de-

prived of jurisdiction in the important City of

Kinchow. The Ministers urged that I should re-

present this to Your Lordship with a view to induc-

ing Her Majesty's Government to reconsider their

decision.

I promised to report to Your Lordship what

Their Excellencies had said. At the same time I

had to remind them that according to the Convention

Chinese jurisdiction was to be retained "except"

in so far as may be inconsistent with military

requirements", Kowloon City was at the very gates

of the Colony: for many years it had been an

Alsatia

Alsatia for vagabonds and criminals of every sort;

and the exercise of Chinese jurisdiction had been

abundantly proved to be not only "inconsistent with

military requirements", but a positive source of

danger to Hong Kong. I could see very little analogy

between Kowloon and Kinchow.

The Ministers replied that the Chinese Govern-

ment would be willing to make any arrangements with

the Hong Kong authorities in order to meet the

necessities of the situation; provided only that the

principle for which they contended could be maintain-

ed, and the city return at least nominally to Chinese

jurisdiction.

(Bigned)

I have, &c.,

Claude M. MacDonald.

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