CO129-544-14 Proposed public park in Kowloon- question of Chinese jurisdiction in city area 9-8-1933 - 9-8-1933 — Page 20

Carta Des-

patch to

Peking No.

9

relinquished the place in question, might object to

England's retaining possession of Kowloon, ar compli-

cations thus might easily arise. The Governor of Hang-

kong again insisted on the insignificance of Kowloon,

and pointed out that Viceroy T'an had stationed 600 men

there, which necessitated the stati ming in the neigh-

bourhood of a corresponding number of British troops

whose services were thus lost to the Colony.

Gascoigne corroborated the stat ene it as to the insigni-

ficance of Kowloon and the absence of population".

Vice-consul present at the interview characterised Li's

reference to Kowloon as more or less perfunctory and

showing little insi stence on the subject.

General

However on the 22nd of January at an int erview

with His Majesty's Comul, Cant on, Li reverted to the

The

20

5 of 22/1/1900.question and his argument as to the analogy with Kinchow,

stating that "Engl and had always been inclined to regard

Russian demania as unreasonable, but in the present in-

stance the situation was reversed... The question had been

dis cuss ed between the Chinese Minister in London and the

Foreign Office but with out satisfactory result" and Li

therefore requested that His Majesty's Comul would ad-

dress the Foreign office with a view to a taiming the re-

trocession desired. His Majesty's Consul pointed out

that this was entirely beyond his powers but agreed to

convey Li's views to His Majesty's Minister in a despatch.

The latest reference to the question that I can

find is a letter from the Foreign Office to the Colonial

Office dated the 2nd March, transmitting copies of des-

patches from His Majesty's Minister at Peking relative

to repe ated requests made by the Chinese Government for

Foreign Office to Colonial Office March 2 1900.

/the

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