FO371-46251 — Page 273

O.L

BE WRITTEN

IN THIS

Page 273

MARGIN.

Registry No.

SECRET

Page 273

Hong Kong.

216

+

3 fleurs

Draft.

areas:

The Colony of Hong Kong comprises three

F4870

(a) The island of Hong Kong, ceded outright to

8. AUG '945 Great Britain by the Nanking Treaty of 1842.

(b) Part of the Kowloon Peninsula opposite

Hong Kong, ceded outright by the Peking

Convention of 1860.

(c) The New Territories, leased for 99 years

by the Peking Convention of 1898. They

include part of the mainland and a number

of islands in the vicinity of a total area

of 405 square miles.

The New Territories were the last of

areas in different parts of China "leased"

under pressure to European Powers during the

year 1898, in the period known as the Battle

of the Concessions. The other four/were

Kiaochow, in Shantung, leased to Germany and

returned to China in 1922; the Kuantung

territory in Manchuria, ingluding Port Arthur

and Dairen, leased to Russia and taken over by

Japan in 1905; Weihaiwei, leased to Great

Britain and returned to China in 1930; and

Kwangchow-wan, Yeased to the French, and at

present in the process of being returned to

China. The New Territories of Hong Kong and

the Kuantung Leased Territory (including Dairen and Port Arthur) are therefore the only

two of the areas leased in 1898 not to have

been so far returned to China.

2.

The reason for the lease of the New

Territories, as stated in the preamble to the

Convention, was that an extension of Hong Kong

territory was necessary for the proper defence

and/

NOTHING

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