TNAG-1309-FCO40-1666-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1984 — Page 62

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cession to the British Crown of the area previously leased to the

British Commissioner.

4.

Over the next few decades disputes continued between the

Chinese and the British authorities in Hong Kong over smuggling in

opium and other commodities.

of a large influx of Chinese.

The population grew rapidly as the result

5.

Following territorial and other concessions extracted from

China by other western powers and Japan in the 1890s, as part of an

effort to protect its own position, Britain acquired the 99-year

lease on the New Territories, beginning from 1 July 1898. The

Convention of Peking, in granting the lease, stipulated that the

Chinese would retain various rights in the leased territories.

Among these, Chinese officials were to retain jurisdiction within

Kowloon City "except so far as may be inconsistent with the military

requirements for the defence of Hong Kong", and Chinese vessels of

war retained the right to use the waters of Mirs Bay and Deep Bay.

An Order in Council was passed in December 1898 to include Kowloon

City in the New Territory, but this arrangement was not recognised

by China. British forces assumed control of the leased territories

in April 1899, encountering some opposition from local inhabitants

encouraged by the Chinese Viceroy in Canton.

6.

Despite a period of turbulence in the 1920s, marked by the

Seamen's strike of 1922 and a general strike in 1925-26, Hong Kong

continued its growth. As a result of the Japanese advance into

China, some 650,000 refugees fled to Hong Kong in 1938-39. When the