CO129-513-4 Land leases in the new territories 8-11-1928 - 29-7-1929 — Page 34

W.

In any further communication on this subject, please quote

No. 1785/1785/10

and address-

not to any person by name,

but to

The Under-Secretary of State,"

Foreign Office,

London, S.W.1.

2

Sir,

62723

3

34

FOREIGN OFFICE,

S.K.1.

25th April, 1929.

I am directed by Secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain

to state that he has had under consideration the despatch

from the Governor of Hongkong and the memorandum recording

the result of a meeting held in Hongkong on the 5th February

last to consider the question of the land leases in the

New Territories of Hongkong, forming enclosures to Colonial

Office letter No. 62723/29 of the 9th April.

2. It appears that the present practice in regard to

such leases is to grant a lease for seventy five years as

from the 1st July 1898 with option of renewal for twenty

four years less three days. Sir Cecil Clementi now

proposes to abstain from making any voluntary alteration

in this practice but, in cases where the prospective lessee

is dissatisfied with so short a term, to grant a lease

for a period extending beyond the term for which the

New Territories are leased to His Majesty's Government.

3. Sir Austen Chamberlain regrets that Sir C. Clementi's

suggestions, contained in paragraph 6 of the memorandum

under reference, as to possible ways of meeting hostile

propaganda which the adoption of the new policy might give

rise to, do not in any way meet the objections to the grant

of leases extending beyond the term laid down in the

The Under Secretary of State,

Colonial Office.

Convention