CO129-609-8 Future policy- general views 3-6-1948 - 9-9-1948 — Page 13

7. Assuming then (a) that the area now called New

Kowloon could be accurately delimited, possibly by

agreement; (b) that some Chinese Government could be made

to agree to its immediate accession to the Colony (to sur

great advantage in the way of Crown Leases and development);

(c) that in return an immediate cessation of the 1898 Lease

for the rest of the Territories be agreed and those

territories revert to China, the question would remain of

our commitments in the latter. Of these the waterworks

are the most important, Shing Mun in esse and Tai Lam Chung

in posse. Any Chinese Government will appreciate this

strangle-hold, and drive a hard bargain. The nearest

analogy seems to me the Gap Rock Lighthouse which we built

and we maintain although the island is still Chinese

territory. This at least shows that such a compromise

is, on a small scale, practicable;

but the adequate

safeguarding of reservoirs and catchment areas would set

a problem of real magnitude. A very large annual cash

subvention might go some of the way to its solution.

k

8. The second problem is that of airfields. Kai Take

is within the New Kowloon area; but for any new airfields

the New Territories proper offer the only possible sites.

Here again some agreed compromise plus a cash transaction

seems necessary. Pressure on an alien airfield might be

inconvenient, but would not offer qite the same strangle-

hold as pressure on an alien water-supply.

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