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Travel and residence. The proposed reservations on this subject have been dropped.
Personal status. The proposal for a clause on this subject has been dropped.
Real property. Agreement on a suitable formula has now been reached (see fifth revised draft)
The final clause in the annex will remain as in the fourth revised draft,
Kowloon leased territory.
In the penultimate paragraph of the Foreign office memorandum sent to the United States Ambassador on 23rd November it was stated that the Chinese Government had asked for the inclusion in Article 5 of the Sino-British treaty of additonal clauses terminating the Convention for the Extension of the Hong Kong Territory signed at Peking in 1898. This convention leased to Great Britain for 99 years certain areas, known as the "New Territories", comprising part of the mainland at Kowloon and a number of islands adjacent to Hong Kong. As stated in the letter of the 14th December to the United States Ambassador His Majesty's Government were not prepared to consider the New Territories in connexion with the present treaty since not only had they nothing to do with extraterritoriality; but being, as stated in the convention, an enlargement of British territory they were in an entirely different category from the concessions and settlements in China in which His Majesty'a Government were relinquishing their special rights. The Chinese Government were so informed. The latter were not satisfied with this answer; but in due course an informal message was received through an intermediary asking what reply His Majesty's Government would give to a communication addressed to them by the Chinese Government stating that while recognising that the question was not cɔneer ed with the matter now under negotiation, they desired to raise it later on at a more appropriate time.
His Majesty's Ambassador was authorised to state that on the receipt of a communication on these linea His Majesty's Government would be prepared to reply to the following effect. The future of the New Territories is outside the scope of the present agreement and His Majesty's Government cannot discuss it now; but if the Chinese Government desire that the terms of the lease of these territories should be reconsidered that is a matter which, in His Majesty's Government's opinion, should be discussed when victory is won.
His Majesty's Ambassador has now been informed by the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs that this solution was not one which the Chinese Government could accept and he urged that His Majesty's Government chould agree to declare now their readiness to return the New Territories to China, the details to be negotiated later. This could be separate from the treaty. Dr. Soong refrained from stating categorically that the Chinese Government would not sign a treaty in the absence of a declaration in the above sense but, according to His Majesty's Ambassador, evidently intended to convey that impression.
FOREIGN OFFICE,
29th December, 1942.
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