to bol. Vargicer (are) (9)
TEL. NO. HOLBORN 3434.
Any communications on the subject of this letter should be addressed to:-
THE SECRETARY,
AIR MINISTRY,
ADASTRAL HOUSE,
KINGSWAY,
LONDON, W.C.2.
NATIONAL
CHEA
SECRE T.
and the following number quoted: S.42674/S.6.
Sir,
5.
26
AIR MINISTRY,
LONDON, W.C. 2.
200ctober, 1937.
I am commanded by the Air Council to state, for the
information of Mr. Secretary Ormsby Gore, that they have had under
3 consideration your letter of the 9th October, No. 53838/15/37,
addressed to the Foreign Office, forwarding a copy of a telegram
from the Officer Administering the Government of Hong Kong in
regard to the possibility of Chinese or Japanese military aircraft landing in the Colony, and the Foreign Office reply No. 7681/7681/f
the 13th October.
2. The Council are in general agreement with the terms of
the Foreign Office letter and in particular they concur with the
suggestion of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs that the
Acting Governor of Hong Kong should be instructed that all
applications for permission to fly over the Colony or its waters in
respect of Chinese or Japanese military aircraft should be refused.
3. With reference to paragraph 2 of the Foreign Office
letter, the Council agree that there would appear to be no
specific power under the Air Navigation Order (Colonies,
Protectorates and Mandated Territories) to intern an aircraft
which has entered the Colony in contravention of the Order.
military aircraft can, however, be fired at if it enters the
Colony without permission (Article 28 (4)), and the pilot is
liable to a maximum term of imprisonment of six months (Article
28 (3)) if he entered the Colony deliberately, though not if he
entered it as the result of "accident, stress of weather, or
other unavoidable cause".
The Under-Secretary of State,
Colonial Office,
Whitehall,
S. W. 1.
Whether or not the pilot is detained,
2