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Mr. Duncan and I attended this morning a
meeting at the Foreign office with representatives
of the Admiralty, War Office and Air Ministry for a
discussion on certain questions affecting the
territorial waters of Hong Kong.
A draft telegram to the Governor had
$7 to 1.0.
already been circulated, to the Foreign Office and the
Admiralty, to tell him that His Majesty's Government
considered it desirable in present circumstances that
in practice the Colonial Government should do nothing
to suggest that a more extensive area of territorial
waters was claimed beyond limits which were generally
recognised by international custom, viz:- approximately
and a three mile limit of territory or national waters.
That telegram has now been agreed upon by the
Departments concerned and has been circulated for
final approval here.
The more particular question of Mirs Bay
and Deep Bay was then considered and the right of
Chinese vessels of war to use those waters under the
terms of the 1898 Agreement with China for the lease
were of the New Territories, whether China was neutral or
otherwise. Mr. Fitzmaurice, Foreign office, who was
presiding at the meeting, referred to the apparent
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intentions of the Chinese as to the meaning and
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purpose of this provision in the 1898 Agreement at
that time, viz:- that it had an anti-piracy purpose.
If we were to conduct ourselves in Hong Kong as
though a state of war existed in China this particular
Treaty right of Chinese warships in Mirs Bay and Deep
Bay would have to be interpreted by us in a restricted
fashion, and it was further very desirable to do so
to