OSRS
GENERAL BRIEF ON HONG KONG
CONSTITUTION
IN CONFIDENCE
SECTION A:
Background
1.
Hong Kong consists of three areas:
b.
AKK and Sus/L
2- NOV 1977
DESK DER INDEX
Yes
REGISTRY, Action Taken
a, Hong Kong Island, which China ceded to Britain
in perpetuity in 1842 by the Treaty of Nanking; Kowloon and Stonecuttere' Islands, which were similarly ceded in 1860 by the First Convention of Peking; and
the New Territories, which China leased to
Britain for 99 years in 1890 by the Second
Convention of Peking.
Its total land area is 404 square miles and it has a population of approximately 4 millions (of which 98% may be described as Chinese on the basis of language or traditional connection).
2.
Hong Kong is a Crow Colony and the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs is directly responsible to Parliament for its government. Hong Kong is itself administered, under the Letters Patent and the Royal Instructions, by a Governor, an Executive Council and a Legislative Council.
3. The Governor has wide powers under the constitution, including the power to make laws, (called Ordinances'.) for the "peace, order and good government of the Colony". The Crown reserves the power of disallowance in respect of all ordinances enacted in Hong Kong and to legislate for the Colony by Order in Council. practice, no post-war British Government has exercised the latter
power.
In
4. The Governor is advised by an Executive Council (known as *ExCo" of 14 members, comprising:-
(a) 5 ex-officio members (who are the Commander of
(b)
the British Forces, the Chief Secretary, the Attorney General, the Secretary for Home Affairs, and the Financial Secretary); and
9 others who may be either Official (ie members of the Hong Kong Government) or Unofficial.
MARIANDENAR.
At present
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