TNAG-1431-FCO40-1914-Sensitivity-review-of-FCO-records-on-Hong-Kong-1985 — Page 65

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES

FROM HONG KONG (Sir R. Black)

Simplex

D. 11th March, 1958, R. 11th

"

08.55 hrs.

114

IMMEDIATE

SECRET

No. 219

Addressed to S. of S, Repeated

TI

Peking No.

68.

IA IN

(S. of S. please pass Immediate to Peking).

FAR EASTERN

See (39)

*(87)

(18)

My telegram No. 209.

Kowloon Walled City.

1 1 MAR 1958 REGISTON BUSTION

I have now put to my Executive Council the problem whether to proceed with the prosecution of Chan Hing or to deport him to the Chinese mainland on another charge e.g. narcotics, without going before the courts. The Executive Council were presented with an abbreviated analysis of the arguments as given in my immediately following telegram.

2. Members were invited to conclude that in either course of action the disadvantages outweighed the advantages, but that if it were not for the grave implications in raising the issue of jurisdiction, prosecution would be the best course for Hong Kong.

3. Advice was unanimously tendered that I should recommend prosecution as the better course of action as seen from Hong Kong, provided that Her Majesty's Government in the U.K. is able to promise full support in upholding the jurisdiction of the Hong Kong courts on the basis of the Royal Order in Council of 1899.

4.

Members asked for reconsideration of the points put to the Law Officers of the Crown in 1948 in particular

(a)

(b)

the present application of the phrase "Chinese officials now stationed within the City of Kowloon", it being clear that there was no intention, implied or expressed, at the time of conclusion of the 1898 Convention that Chinese jurisdiction in the City would be of long continuation. H. M. Chargé d'Affaires in Peking's telegram 122 to Foreign Office refers;

the present application of the phrase "inconsistent with the military requirements for the defence of Hong Kong". They expressed the view that inability to exercise jurisdiction within the Kowloon Walled City would be inconsistent with the maintenance of internal security, for example, if a seditious gathering were to take place within the boundaries of the Walled City and that this must affect military requirements for defence in the special circumstances of Hong Kong.

/5.

1