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SCMP Reporter

Official documents discussing the Convention of Peking, the document signed 99 years ago today that gave Britain a lease over the New Territories, are still considered too sensitive for release by the authorities in London.

 Although it took effect on July 1, 1898, the document now denounced by Beijing as an 'unequal treaty' was signed on June 9.

 The 10-paragraph treaty also created the Kowloon Walled City no-go area by allowing Chinese officials 'to continue to exercise jurisdiction' in Kowloon City.

 But when local academic Professor Peter Wesley-Smith formally applied to London earlier this year for 20 records from 1930s relating to the treaty he was given access to only three - even though he wanted to view them after the handover.

 'There's still sensitivity - or it may just be the British obsession with secrecy,' said Professor Wesley-Smith, of the University of Hong Kong's Department of Law, who is updating his book Unequal Treaty 1898-1997.

 At first classified for 50 years, documents had been reclassified for another 25.

 He believed the documents withheld related to the Walled City.

 The professor said problems with the treaty would continue to dog the Special Administrative Region, for instance its poor definition of the area under British lease.

 'The question of boundaries remains crucial. It depends on where you are and whether the SAR courts have jurisdiction,' he said.

 Although the lease took effect in 1898, the British did not raise the flag until April 16, 1899, in a ceremony in Tai Po involving 400 soldiers, the gunboat Fame and three Maxim machine-guns.

 The most recent government history of Hong Kong, published in Hong Kong 1997 just a few weeks ago, states 'there was some desultory opposition when the British took over the New Territories in April 1898, but this soon disappeared'.

 However, colonial dispatches show the first police post had to be abandoned after it was burned down in a night attack.

 Also, the day after the Union flag was raised, the outpost at Tai Po was attacked by several thousand men and heavy artillery.

 Fears of further unrest led the British to invade Shenzhen between May and November 1899, colonial records show.

 Yim Shui-yuen, curator of the Regional Council Heritage Museum being built at Sha Tin, would like to tell visitors the true story of the first months of the New Territories but it was difficult.

 'You can't put books on display - you have to have artefacts to show,' he said.



Convention of Peking still under wraps