CONFIDENTIAL
SCR 26/5061/49 VI
J T Masefield Esq
Far Eastern Department
FCO
18 January, 1979
24li
No Williamson J241
HICL 020/! HKL and! - 10.51
OFFICER
INDEX
PA
Action 14%
ALLEGED INFRINGEMENT OF CHINESE TERRITORIAL WATERS BY US WARSHIP
No
Jola
Thank you for your letter of 12 December. We have since had another incident involving a US warship. The Navy oil tanker, USS ASHTABULA, was flashed from Tan Kan Shan Island on 1 December. The Americans say that the ship was following the same course as usual.
2.
This incident has had one rather odd result. In the further investigations we carried out, it transpired that warnings of this sort are far more common than we had thought when I wrote my letter of
BACKORD/ 25 October. In fact, our Marine Department tell us
1978
that it is common, practice for merchant vessels to be varned by the Chinese in this way if they pass within five miles of the Chinese signal station at North East Head. As a result, virtually all ships arriving and departing Hong Kong make a point of steaming at least five miles offshore. This is also the case with Royal Naval vessels.
3.
Warnings are apparently such a common practice that no record of the incidents is kept in the Secretariat. Unfortunately, the person who dealt with the first incident involving the US Navy, and prepared the material for my letter of 25 October, has now left Hong Kong so it is not possible to find out how it happened that he failed to discover this simple fact. I was interested, however, to notice that the Ministry of Defence are apparently as ignorant as we vere of what has been going on.
/contd..
CONFIDENTIAL