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and protection of the colony. What has now

become an equally important factor is that

the main water supply of Hong Kong is in the

New Territories.

3.

In the course of the negotiations which

preceded the abolition of extraterritoriality

in China, the Chinese Government made a

request for the rendition of the New

Territories.

His Majesty's Government refused

to consider this question in connexion with

extra-territoriality, but agreed that it.

might be discussed with the Chinese Government

after the war. Almost certainly the Chinese

Government will then face us with the proposal

that the agreement of 1898 should be

terminated and that the area should revert to

Chinese sovereignty.

4. At no time have the Chinese Government

raised the question of the status of Hong Kong

as a whole, but it is generally recognised that

their ultimate object is the "recovery" of the

whole colony ceded to Great Britain in 1842 and

1860. The Generalissimo, in his book "China's

Destiny", published in 1943, made it clear that

Hong Kong is regarded as properly belonging to

China and its recovery is merely being postponed.

In support of their claim, the Chinese can

point to the fact that Hong Kong is geographically

and economically a part of China and that its

5.

population is overwhelmingly Chinese. They

would probably also claim that it was wrested from

them under the "unequal treaties" and that its

rendition would erase the last of China's

humiliations suffered under these treaties.

Against this we can set the following

considerations:

-

(a) At/

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