CO129-604-5 Immigration- control over entry from China 4-3-1948 - 6-1-1949 — Page 37

54064/48

Colonial uffice,

The Church House

Great Smith Street,

London, S.W.1.

12th October, 1948.

Ь

37

In the last paragraph of his letter No. 54436/48 of the 14th May, 1948, to Sir Alexander Grantham, Sidebothar mentioned that our Legal Advisers were engaged on an examina- tion of the points made in your Confidential letter No. 1/1166/ 470 of the 4th March to Mayle about the alleged right of Chinese to enter Hong Kong.

I now enclose a copy of a Memorandum prepared by our Legal Advisers on this subject. The Memorandum (see page 7, last paragraph) is being referred to the Foreign Office with a request that they should both amplify their previous statement as to the prescriptive right of the Chinese to enter or settle in Hong Kong, and should say whether, in view of the immigration and deportation legislation of Hong Kong referred to in the Memorandum, they would now agree that the Chinese have probably acquired no prescriptive right to enter or settle in Hong Kong. I trust that we shall soon be able to reach an agreed view with the Foreign Office on this voxed question.

D.M. MaɑDOUGALL, ESQ., C.M.G.

(W.I.J. Wallace)