CO129-533-11 Protection of Anglo-Chinese in China 21-2-1931 - 22-9-1931 — Page 48

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and China that the limits of British territory shall be enlarged under lease.. The term of this lease shall be ninety-nine years. It is at the same time agreed that within the city of Kowloon the Chinese officials now stationed there shall continue to exercise jurisdiction except so far as may be inconsistent with the military requirements for the defence of Hong Kong. Within the limits of the newly leased territory Great Britain shall have sole jurisdiction. Chinese officials and people shall be allowed, as heretofore, to use the road from Kowloon to Hsinan. It is further agreed that the existing landing-place near Kowloon City shall be reserved for the convenience of Chinese men-of-war, merchant and passenger vessels which may come and

go

and lie there at their pleasure and for the convenience and movement of the officials and people within the city. It is further understood that there will be no expropriation or expulsion of inhabitants of the district within the extension. .

If cases of extradition

of criminals occur, they shall be dealt with in accordance with existing treaties

and the Hong Kong regulations.

38-40.

tial Print

11426,

Mr. Alabaster was of the opinion that the Chinese inhabitants of the New Terri- Confiden- tories continued to be subjects of China only. Sir Ernest Satow and Sir John Jordan tial Print were both of opinion that we could not claim to protect the inhabitants of the New 11426, pp. Territory as British subjects in China. The latter pointed out that the Chinese regarded Kowloon on the same basis as Kiaochau and Dairen, namely, as leased and Confiden not as ceded territory. Kiaochau was leased to Germany for ninety-nine years

in March 1898, and Kowloon was, as a political concession, leased to Great Britain No. 5 for the same period three months later. It was never suggested that the Chinese inhabitants of Kiaochau had lost their Chinese nationality, and the Chinese would never admit such a contention in the case of Kowloon. His Majesty's Government deemed it expedient to abstain from communicating to the Chinese Government their view that the inhabitants of Kowloon had become British subjects, and in 1905, when the Chinese Government wrote on the assumption that they were still subjects of China, care was taken in the reply to avoid controverting the assumption. In a case which occurred in 1910, the Chinese nationality of an inhabitant of the Kowloon extension was fully recognised by His Majesty's Government (see Appendix I, case No. 20).

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The Law Officers of the Crown ruled in 1899 that the persons inhabiting the Kowloon extension at the time of the transfer were to be regarded as British subjects

for all purposes,

apparently on the ground that it was an extension under lease of the Colony of Hong Kong. Sir E. Davidson agreed with this view, but he also thought that this would not prevent the inhabitants having a second nationality. Supposing that Chinese municipal law prescribes, as I understand it does, that Liang Tou is within China a Chinaman, how can we object on the ground that Confiden- according to international law he is not?" The reasoning which led Sir E. Davidson tial Print to adopt this view is equally applicable to the case of Hong Kong and Kowloon as to the case of the Kowloon extension :-

tr

: :

11426,

p. 24.

11426, P.

According to the view of the Law Officers (and I think that technically Confiden- their view is sound) the territory of Kowloon which was ceded to Great Britain tial Print for a term of ninety-nine years, became during and for that term an integral portion of the British Dominions. It is a peculiar and novel form of tenure; but applying recognised principles to the new conditions, I think that while the term lasts the territory is just as fully part of the British Dominions as if (for instance) it had been conquered and annexed and we had given an undertaking to restore it to China at the end of ninety-nine years.

It follows, in my opinion, that in contemplation of English law, anybody born in Kowloon during the term of ninety-nine years-rebus sic stantibus, of course is a natural-born British subject jure soli, though such persons may, in contemplation of the law of their parents' country of origin, have a second nationality (Chinese or other) which in that country of origin will prevail.”

5.

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