TNAG-1208-FCO40-1511-Compulsory-acquisition-of-land-in-the-Kowloon-Walled-City-1982 — Page 38

CONFIDENTIAL

of British and Chinese officers to investigate claims to Chinese property in the part of the Kowloon peninsula which was being ceded. Sir Hercules Robinson's despatch of 30 April 1862 enclosed a report by the Commissioners. This annexed a map. It marks the boundary going in an almost east-west direction across the Peninsula. It also marks "Kowloon Town" and this is entirely to the north of the boundary line.

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The Convention of 6 August 1898 also mentioned the City of Kowloon. It said

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"It is at the same time agreed that within the City of Kowloon the Chinese officials now stationed there shall continue to exercise jurisdiction, except so far as may be inconsistent with the military requirements for the defence of Hong Kong. Within the remainder of the newly-leased territory Great Britain shall have sole jurisdiction. Chinese officials and people shall be allowed as heretofore to use the road from Kowloon to Hsinan. It is further agreed that the existing landing place near Kowloon City shall be reserved for the convenience of Chinese men-of-war, merchant and passenger vessels which may come and go and lie there at their pleasure; and for the convenience of movement of the officials and people within the city.

Colonial Office file No 882, folio 66, contains a good deal of correspondence about these provisions of the 1898 Convention. From the outset there was strong opposition from Hong Kong and elsewhere to the inclusion of these provisions at all. For example, the report of 8 October 1898 from Mr Stuart Lockhart to the Colonial Office concluded that the Chinese presence in Kowloon City was entirely inconsistent with the military requirements for the defence of Hong Kong by the British (page 52). He described the city in the following terms

"The City of Kowloon is called in Chinese Kau Lung Shing. The term Shing is the ordinary one used for a city by the Chinese. It originally seems to have signified a rampart surrounding a space; but it is now always applied to a city surrounded by a wall or rampart, as all Chinese cities are. The Convention refers to the retention of juris- diction "within the City of Kowloon", thus clearly showing that the walled city is meant.

Kowloon is situated about a quarter of a mile from the seashore. It is enclosed by a stone wall built in 1847...According to a return...the total population of Kowloon City is 744; the Garrison amounts to 544; the civil population is 200. officials stationed within the city are, with the exception of one civil officer, a Deputy Magistrate, military officers, the head of whom is the Colonel

CONFIDENTIAL

The

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