A study of the district administration and governance in post-war New Territories, Hong Kong (1945-1982) = 戰後新界的地區行政及管治研究 (1945-1982)

Abstract

In 1898, the Great Britain forced the Qing Dynasty to sign the “The Convention between Great Britain and China respecting an Extension of Hong Kong Territory,” which enable the British to occupy the New Territories for 99 years. Since the New Territories has already establishing social structures and customs a long time ago, which are different from the administrative system of urban area, the Hong Kong Government believed that forcibly imposing an urban administrative system on the New Territories, would bring negative consequences. As a result, the Hong Kong Government decided to institute two administrative systems for the New Territories: The District Officer system and the urban administrative system with the Governor as the center. Until the fall of Hong Kong to the Japanese army in 1941, the phenomenon of “One Hong Kong, Two systems” remained unchanged. After WW2, due to population growth and the urbanization of the New Territories, the Hong Kong Government started to pay more attention to them. In addition, the “City District Officer Scheme” was implemented after the 1967 riots, and Maclehose’s “New Town Development Policy” gradually broke down the separation between the urban areas and the administration of the New Territories, thus forming today's local administrative system. Drawing on information from the British National Archives, Legislative Council documents, and local newspapers, this thesis investigates the development of the New Territories after 1945, the evolution of the District Office system in the region, and what prompted the Hong Kong Government to end the separation of the urban areas from the New Territories administration and to move towards the integration of the two systems.