Confidential -
M 0877 80th
In any further communication on this subject, please quote
and address letter to
The Secretary,
Admiralty, Whitehall;
London, SW.
Sir,
Admiralty,
16 March 1904
I have laid before My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty your letter No.7139/04 of the 7th instant, enclosing copy of a despatch from the Officer Administering the Government of Hong Kong on the subject of the Regulations as to the anchorage of Foreign Men-of-War at that Port.
2. In reply, I am to request that you will represent to the Secretary of State that the view expressed by their Lordships on this question in Admiralty Letter M-14440 of the 2nd December last was based upon long experience of the paramount importance of free movement for His Majesty's Ships in all parts of the World. This freedom of movement has never yet been restricted in any part of the world and no British Authority has hitherto proposed to hamper the movements of warships belonging to friendly powers in British waters, except in such minor degree as the exigencies of navigation required. My Lords cannot but feel that any action in this direction taken by the greatest Naval Power would result in the imposition of similar restrictions by other Powers, to the injury of British Naval interests.
3. My Lords are fully conscious of the share of the responsibility for the safety of all British Colonies which must rest upon His Majesty's Navy, but they are not aware of any reason for making an exception in the case of Hong Kong to the general principle stated above.
4. For these reasons their Lordships adhere to the terms of Admiralty Letter M-14440 of the 2nd December last and would again suggest, for Mr Lyttelton's consideration, the extreme desirability
Under Secretary of State,
COLONIAL OFFICE.
L.P.-No. 8.