HONG KONG
file
1.
Hong Kong consists of three areas:
2.
(a) Hong Kong Island, which China ceded to Britain in perpetuity
in 1842 by the Treaty of Nanking;
(b)
(c)
Kowloon and Stonecutters' Island, 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 1898 by the Second Convention of Peking.
Hong Kong is a Crown 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, members of which are either ex officio or appointed
by the Governor on behalf of the Crown.
3.
The Governor, who represents the Crown, is the real head of govern-
ment having 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. In practice, no post- war British Government has exercised this power.
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