TNAG-1037-FCO40-1287-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1981 — Page 49

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it would need to do so by Act of Parliament.

Continued British

Negotiations

administration of the territory, under any arrangement arrived at

with the Chinese, might be best provided for under the same Act,

as would the future citizenship of Hong Kong belongers.

involving recognition of Chinese sovereignty would need to take

account of our continuing international responsibility for Hong Kong

as a territory administered by the UK.

14.

The position over sovereignty is complicated by the differing

legal status of Hong Kong and the Kowloon Peninsula on the one hand

and the New Territories on the other. The former were ceded to the

British Crown by the Treaty of Nanking (1842) and the Convention

of Peking (1860) respectively. The latter were leased for a period

of 99 years under the Convention of Peking (1898). There is thus a

clear (though unstated) understanding that whether or not Britain

acquired 'sovereign rights' in the New Territories, sovereignty

would be resumed by China on expiry of the Lease. This was implicit

in the Order in Council of 20 October 1898 which declared the

New Territories to be 'part and parcel of Her Majesty's Colony of

Hong Kong' 'for the term described' in the Convention of June

1898*. A statement accepting ultimate Chinese sovereignty over the

New Territories should thus not present serious legal difficulties

if they could be treated in isolation. However, administratively the

Territory of Hong Kong constitutes a single unit and, in any case,

the Chinese (who maintain that all the Treaties were 'unequal' and

thus that all the areas in question are equally Chinese) would no

doubt require a declaration covering the whole Territory.

15.

A declaration recognising residual Chinese sovereignty over

Hong Kong Island and Kowloon would derogate from the cession of the

areas concerned under the Treaty of 1842 and the Convention of 1860.

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