Confidential.
431
Copy of despatch from His Majesty's Minister, Peking, to the Admiral, China Station, the Governor of Hongkong and His Majesty's Consuls at Canton and Swatow.
Sir:-
PEKING, August 16th, 1908.
I have received a despatch from His Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs respecting a proposal made by two British subjects, Messrs. Harry Kendall Carse Newman and Langton Wilkinson, to the effect that His Majesty's Government should annex the islet of Pratas in the China Seas.
This islet, which is situated about 170 miles due S.E. of Hongkong, in latitude 20° 42' 3" North and longitude 116° 43' 14" East of Greenwich, would appear never to have been formally occupied by, or claimed as forming part of the possessions of any Power, but from the voluminous correspondence enclosed in Sir E.Grey's despatch abovementioned, there would seem to be indications that, although the Chinese Government had never exercised any act of authority over the islets which form the atoll, occasions have occurred, as in 1882,
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