Copies to:
Peking D.M.
Shanghai Canton
Hong Kong
NOTES ON QUESTIONS BRIEFLY DISCUSSED BY H.M. MINISTER WITH H.E. THE GOVERNOR AT HONG KONG (SIR T. SOUTHORN & SIR E. TEICHMAN ALSO BEING PRESENT.)
NOVEMBER 28th and 29th.
Kowloon City Evictions.
39
ENS
His Excellency said that the Colonial authorities
were going ahead with the new buildings and that when these
were completed they would offer the present occupiers the
option of monetary compensation or new houses. Out of two or
three hundred of the se occupiers practically all were willing
to accept the terms offered and there seemed to be no diffi-
culties locally.
In the course of further conversation and in reply
to H.M. Minister's enquiry as to whether he could continue
to refute the Wai Chiao Pu's arguments and state categorical-
ly that all the occupiers were willing to move and challenge
them, the Wai Chiao Pu, to name any dissentient, it was
stated that there appeared still to be one, but only one,
recalcitrant, who was a newcomer, having only been in Kowloon
city a matter of fifteen years.
•
It was agreed that, as suggested by the Foreign
Office, the matter should be allowed to rest in the hope
that the Wai Chiao Pu, whose last note on the subject was
still unanswered, would be willing to let it drop. If,
however, they did revert to the question and press for an
answer, H.M. Minister would consider replying, possibly
verbally in the first instance, on the above lines.
As regards the history of the case and the argu-
ments in justification of our action in 1900 and since, there
was nothing to add to the points made in the recent Foreign
Office despatch on the subject.
Reference: Secretary of State's despatch (Secret) of 23.8.34.
(34)
33744/34
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