234
ny.13/2/00 071/00
esp.75 of 16/3/
on F.0.6551/00
ee minutes on
0656/99 and
50/00
20 The Admiralty in reply to an enquiry said
that in their opinion the foreshores should be regarded
as British and that the Chinese Government should have
no power to grant leases on any portion of them. The
Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty "consider it
essential that there should be no doubt as to the claim
of Great Britain to the foreshores, should the question
ever arise". The Governor was informed of the purport
of the Law Officers opinion.
21.
The position of His Majesty's Government is
therefore perfectly clear; but there is nothing to show
that the Foreign Office ever informed the Chinese
Government of this view, and it is clear I think that
the Chinese could dispute it, since the legal advisers
of the Colonial Office and of Hongkong took the view
that Hongkong could not claim the foreshore.
22. The whole position appears to be as follows,
assuming that the Foreign Office did not inform the
Chinese Government of the modification in the western
boundary (I think this is a fair assumption).
The land portion of the Northern boundur, has
been delimited by properly appointed officers in accord-
ance with the convention; the point from which the
Eastern boundary starts has been fixed by British officers alone; the southern boundary differs from the line shown in the Convention ma, since latitude 22° 9' N.
does not touch Tai A Chabut is to the south of it.
unauthorised The authorised I.D.map shows the line:
maps show a different line: the western boundary has been modified from the line shown in the convention map. Great Britain claims territorial powers within the three
mile