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(iii) Prevention by means other than boarding. (paragraph 3). We agree entirely that there would be very little in practice that the Royal Navy could do which would not amount to inter- ference with freedom of navigation.
(iv) Constructive presence and hot pursuit (paragraph 4). The practical limitation on the usefulness of either of these doctrines is, as Mr Chamberlain points out, the fact that there are no substantial areas of high seas adjacent to Hong Kong territorial waters except possibly towards the south-east, which I assume is not the direction from which boats carrying illegal immigrants usually come. ('Possibly' is a necessary qualification since the question of maritime limits in the neighbourhood of Hong Kong is extremely complicated, and virtually no statement on the subject is immune from challenge.) On all other sides, Chinese territorial sea limits appear to be contiguous with those of Hong Kong, with only small, isolated and irregular pockets of high seas intervening in a few areas.
4. I should be most grateful if you could pass these comments to Hong Kong as representing the Ministry of Defence view on the subjects raised. I am sending a copy of this letter to David Wyatt in MAED.
Yours sincerely,
nys Abbot
PH
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