CO129-495 - Governor Sir Clementi - 1926 [11-12] — Page 132

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Colony of HongKong will not be allowed tebecome a mere "scrap of paper". Again, the New Territorion of this Colony are British by virtue of a ninety-nine years' lesso signed at Peking on the 9th June, 1898, and in this connection I refer you to my secret despatch of the 19th January mnd to my despatches concerning the defence of HongKong, which show that the New Territories could not be given up without jeopardising the very existence of HongKong as a British Colony. There are also the large British interesta involved in the mainten:mos of the integrity of the Chinese Maritime Customs, the revere collected by which is security for my foreign loans to China; there is the

immensely important International Concession at

Shanghai; there are valuable British Concessions

elsewhere; and there is the question of

extraterritoriality, concerning which a Commission

(whose report I have not yet seen) has made recent

recommendations. I have only set down a few of

the main hoads for consideration; but there are

mmy other relatively minor matters, as for

instance the administration of the Kowloon-Canton

railway and its connection with the Canton-Hankew railway, to mention ene only, which are of importance to Hong Kong:+ I venture, therefore, to sssociate myself fully with that passage in Sir R. Macleay'e telegram No. 392 of the 26th October, addressed to the Foreign Office, which reads:- "The question is, are the principal Powers going to permit the Nationalist party to ignore China'a obligations incurred at Washington, toabolish the

treaties

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