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of the Officers in Admiralty is to save goods cast on shore.
7.
The shore between high and low water marks has always been held to be prima facie extra-parochial and cannot be held by any individual or corporation except by direct grant from the Sovereign, who controls the waters, or by ancient prescription. There appears to be no difference in the common law of China on this subject. One of the heads of the Clan owing Chung Chow told me they held sovereign rights over the whole island, and on inquiring how far over the sea he claimed these sovereign rights to extend he admitted that they stopped at high-water mark and that they had no claim to the foreshore.
8.
All general rights of Her Majesty's subjects to the use of the sea extend to the use of the sea-shore without molestation between high and low water marks, and, with the extension of the waters, it is apprehended that these rights must necessarily follow into the extension, there being no exception stated in the Convention.
9. It seems to me, therefore, that the grant of the waters clearly includes the shore within the flow of the sea, the shore forming part of the waters, and forming no part of the adjacent territory.
Land Office 7/8/99
(Sd.) Bruce Shepherd.