TNAG-0642-FCO40-790-Kowloon-Walled-City-and-aircraft-safety-in-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 91

CONFIDENTIAL

Note on Chinese Involvement in Kowloon Walled City

After the British authorities unilaterally assumed control of the Walled City in 1899, friction with the Chinese died down, although from time to time rumours circulated that the Chinese intended to reassert their authority in the Walled City once they had resolved the more pressing problems which absorbed them from 1911 onwards. However, in 1934 a Hong Kong Government plan to clear the interior of the Walled City in order to make a park immediately ran into strong local opposition, which was supported by Canton and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When the Hong Kong authorities agreed to provide new houses for each of the families to be evicted, it was hoped that the Chinese would forget the matter in the face of this handsome compensation. But in 1935 the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs again protested and claimed that the resettlement site was unacceptable. Some of the families continued to hold out with Chinese support until the Second World War.

2.

After the Second World War, it did not prove easy for the Hong Kong authorities to reassert their control over the Walled City. The walls themselves had disappeared, having been used by the Japanese to build a new airport runway in Kowloon Bay. The exact boundaries of the Walled City were therefore unclear. There was also a large influx of refugees from the Chinese mainland as a result of the civil war and the Walled City was quickly reoccupied by squatters. At the end of 1947, the Hong Kong Government decided to clear the area, despite strong representations by the Chinese Government, who claimed that the Hong Kong authorities were exceeding their powers under the 1898 Convention. Armed with a court order and offers of alternative accommodation, the Police and P W D officials expelled the squatters on 5 January, 1948 and demolished their huts. A week later several people were injured in a riot resulting from Police efforts to prevent squatters returning. There was an immediate reaction inside China: in Canton, several thousand Chinese, many of them students, attacked and burnt down the British Consulate-General and the private houses of some of its staff. The Vice-Consul and three other British subjects were injured. Other demonstrations took place in Shanghai. All British women and children in Canton had to be flown out to Hong Kong. One of the first duties of the newly appointed Political Adviser in Hong Kong was to comfort these refugees. Although the British Government protested to the Chinese, no compensation was ever paid, since the Chinese presented a counter-claim on behalf of the Walled City squatters, several of whom had been arrested and imprisoned. After this incident, the Hong Kong authorities backed down and did not try to disturb the squatters again. As a result,

/contd....

CONFIDENTIAL