TNAG-1037-FCO40-1287-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1981 — Page 50

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*Footnote:

1. It is true that the Colonial Office were careful to treat the

New Territories as far as possible as ceded territories rather than

as a protectorate, for instance by the use of an Order in Council

without parliamentary endorsement rather than by reliance on the

Foreign Jurisdiction Act (1890) as the means of assumption of

authority over the territories. (The latter course was used for

the leased territory of Weihaiwei).

2.

But in the view of Sir Gerald Fitzmaurice, while in practice

the territories had been treated as cessions not leases, 'the

residual sovereignty ... remains in the lessor and when the term

is up he automatically resumes full control without the necessity for

any special instrument conferring it upon him'.

(Fitzmaurice:

Position of leased territory in China during war

CO 129/564 53852).

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