86A
434
Confidential.
Sir,
September 17th, 1908.
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch, confidential, dated the 16th ultimo, on the subject of the ownership of the Pratas Islands in the China Sea.
In reply to a private letter addressed to Taotai Wen Tsung Yao, Secretary to the Canton Viceroy, on the 17th ultimo, I have to-day received a semi-official communication, copy and translation of which I have the honour to enclose, in which it is clearly stated that these islands belong to China.
The Captain of one of the Hongkong-Canton River steamers who formerly sailed between Hongkong and Manila informs me that he knows the Pratas group well. They lie a little to the North-West of the direct course to Manila, but in bad weather ships often pass quite close to them and he believes small steamers have more than once anchored there during the North-East monsoon.
J. N. Jordan, K.C.M.G.,
&c., &c., &c.