Telegrams-“ SHIPMINDER, PARL, LONDON.” Telephone-WHITEHALL 5140.
Any further communication on this subject should be addressed to :-
The Assistant Secretary,
Mercantile Marine Department (address as opposite)
and the following number quoted :-
M.9990/39.
Sir,
OF
a
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MERCANTILE MARINE DEPARTMENT,
BOARD OF TRADE,
RECRIVED
12 JUL 1939
GREAT GEORGE STREET,
LONDON, S.W.1.
10th July, 1939.
3.
I am directed by the Board of Trade to refer to your
Letter 54001/39 of the 10th June, 1939, enclosing a copy
of a despatch from the Governor of Hong Kong regarding
the application made by a Japanese Company for permission
to salvage the wreck of the Japanese S. S. "Jin Kai Maru".
Inasmuch as the carrying out of salvaging operations
is the exercise of an industry, the Board do not consider
that the Japanese have any Treaty right to insist upon
permission to carry out such salvage operations in British
waters under Article 6 of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of
Commerce and Navigation, 1911, which entitles Japanese
subjects who come with their ships to Hong Kong to
national treatment in respect of "commerce and navigation".
Nor does Article 23 of the treaty, which merely
defines the rights of Japanese nationals in respect of
goods salvaged from wrecks and to the wreck itself, confer
any rights on Japanese nationals in the matter of
The Under-Secretary of State,
Colonial Office,
S.W.1.
/salvaging