CO129-571-16 New Territories 13-4-1938 - 12-12-1938 — Page 129

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view the Commander-in-Chief, China Station and the General

Officer Commanding the British Troops in China concur.

2.

The memorandum purports to show in the

first place that the British-owned territory of Hong Kong

is far too small to contain the towns which have grown and

are still rapidly growing on both sides of this extremely

important naval and commercial harbour. It will not, I

think, be questioned that considerations of public health

and good order demand that any individual urban area and

its immediate environs should be under a single homogeneous

control, the administrative limits of which should include

its water and power supplies, the public aerodrome serving

the area and other public amenities of that nature. None

of these conditions would obtain were British tenure of the

leased lands to expire: fur thermore the main British

military and air force cantonments would then lie on foreign

soil.

3.

Other disabilities of the gravest nature

(1)

that would arise in those circums tances would be as follows:-

A large part of the harbour area would revert to

China, a set of circumstances that would preclude

the possibility of efficient administration.

(2)

Approach to the Colony's harbour could only be

made by sea through Chinese waters and by air

over Chinese territory: this, presumably, would

permit the Government of China to exact customs

duties on all goods conveyed to Hong Kong, even

though only in transit.