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Effect of Article XIX of Washington Treaty upon
Dock and Harbour Developments at Hong Kong.
A copy of the Article will be found at the back of
C.I.D. paper 181.C.
hot-
ke Adems have kor
Important works of Harbour development are at
present contemplated in Hong Kong. These would be
carried out by the Government of Hong Kong, and no
suggestion has been made that they should be in any way
subsidised from Imperial funda. The Admiralty
have however twice gone out of their way to inform the
Colonial Office that in consequence of the Washington
Treaty His Majesty's Government will not be in a
position to subsidise any worke designed for the Harbour
development of Hong Kong.Though this view is, to say the
least, open to dispute, the question does not arise if
by His Majesty's Government the Admiralty intend to refer
only to the Imperial Government without covering the
Colonial Government. They have not in this correspond-
X hd com a better say byence defined what they do mean, but In
in a previous memo. by the Naval Staff (176 C) they suggest that Hong Kong; unlike Malaya, is not in a position, owing to the Treaty,
to undertake local measures, among which they specify was specifik the subsidising of commercial port development/ Such an
as that Miginally suggested by the Marka citt interpretation of the treaty, in the Colonial Office view, both intolerable and unjustifiable.
intolerable because it would severely hamper, if it did
not entirely prevent any further development of the port; a situation which would lead to the loss by Hong Kong of
its position as the chief distributing centre of trade in South China, and in short to the ruin of the Colony,
CFA lawred at it was not thein
tention to caffeat that!
manncial harbour
welopement by the fort
Hongking
worst be
adonssille so that T. IS. is not noti Kely to be houtled
7h this matter.
it-ww
to grave damage to Miteshade.
It is
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