TNAG-1235-FCO40-1548-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 83

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In January 1899, the Hong Kong authorities began to take over the administration of the New Territories". Efforts were made to repudiate or to evade the implementation of the so-called unfavourable terms of the Articles ever since.

Chinese officials empowered to remain in office under the conditions of the Articles were expelled from Kowloon City. Moreover, the Hong Kong authorities arbitrarily refused to recognise the right of access to the pier in Mirs Bay by Chinese warships and merchant vessels and ignored the right of passage in Mirs Bay and Shenzhen Bay by Chinese warships. Britain also flatly refused to fulfill her promise of letting the Hong Kong authorities assist China in consolidating the tax system". All the reservations so eagerly promised to China by C. MacDonald in exchange for the lease of the northern part of the Kowloon Peninsula were totally ignored. The aforesaid illustrated clearly that in the mind of the imperialists, "might is right". They would acquire things to their advantage at all cost. Breaking a promise is nothing unusual to them. The refusual of the Hong Kong authorities to recognise part of the Articles is another living proof.

It has been more than a century since the British encroached upon Hong Kong Island and the south of Kowloon Peninsula, and more than eighty years since the Pritish leased the north of Kowloon Peninsula and the outlying islands. The Chinese people, including Hong Kong compatriots, have staged a protracted struggle against the British occupation of Hong Kong. Following the second Opium War initiated, by Britain, Hong Kong compatriots left Hong Kong for the mainland in large groups, the total number of which exceeded twenty thousand (the population of Hong Kong was less than one hundred thousand then), thus "putting to a halt the businesses run by foreigners who were stranded so badly that they had to do the cooking themselves." In 1899, the British took over the administration of the north of Kowloon Peninsula, and several thousand local residents armed themselves to put up a fierce struggle against the leasing of, Kowicon Peninsula to Britain. In 1925 and 1926, Hong Kong compatriots and the Kwangtung people joined hands in the "Kwangtung and Hong Kong Strike" which lasted more than a year and effected a serious blow to the economy of Hong Kong. Hong Kong was at a time paralysed and became a "stinking harbour" and a dead port. Subsequent to the outbreak of the Pacific War, Japan easily invaded Hong Kong and it was only the Chinese there who persistently fought the battle against the Japanese. The British came back after the surrender of the Japanese and resumed the administration of Hong Kong, but all through, the unequal treaties pertaining to Hong Kong which were forced upon by the British were not recognized by the Chinese. Since the liberation of China, the Chinese Government has stuck to the principle that China is not bound by the ties of the unequal treaties and that the whole of the Hong Kong region will be resumed when the conditions are ripe. Now that the era in which imperialism can play tyrant and do as it pleases is gone and the Chinese have risen to their feet, indulgence in the past, vain attempt of retaining the territory, tricky distortion of international laws in defence of the unequal treaties and deceitful reasoning by saying that Hong Kong is a key foreign dollar earner for China are of no use. sovereignty of China must be restored, and the resumption of Hong Kong is the

The integrity and just demand and common wish of the one billion Chinese people. They are determined to accomplish the mission bestowed upon them and nothing can stand in their way.

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