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1958 and was dealt with in detail in an official note addres- sed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs on the 28th February. It was shew that on the afternoon of the 11th February a Jap- anese armed motor trawler, flying a Japanese flag, fired upon and seized four trading junks between the mainland and Tungku Island in British (Hongkong) territorial waters at a point 22° 22′ 50′′ North Latitude and 115° 54' 20" East longitude. One of the crew of one of the junks was injured by machine-gun fire. after ordering the crews to abandon the junks, a party from the Japanese vessel set fire to the junks. The crews landed on the mainland. A Hongkong police launch subsequently extinguished the fire on three of the junks; the fourth was already partly submerged by the time the police launch arrived. One of these junks was proceeding from Hongkong and had not left British territorial waters; the others are believed to bave entered British waters from Chinese waters prior to their
seizure.
It was pointed out by His Majesty's mbassador that as the attack took place between Tungku Island and the mainland, the Japanese vessel could not have been in ignor- ance that it was inside territorial waters. The Japanese Government were requested to ensure that Japanese vessels strictly observed the orders issued by the naval authorities on the matter of the carrying out of hostile operations in Hongkong territory or within longkong waters. In default of such steps, it was stated, His Majesty's Government would be forced to take appropriate measures to prevent the recur-
rence of such incidents.
The Japanese Government replied in a note dated the 8th March that after the closing of the Canton river by the Canton authorities on the 4th February 1938, juks became very active in that area and a strict watch was maintained. on the 11th February a patrol vessel, temporarily anchored
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