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acceptance of the Court's jurisdiction.
us
We accordingly proceed to answer the questions put to
as follows:-
1. We think that the Chinese case would succeed unless the
British refusal to allow resumption of Chinese jurisdiction
could be justified on the ground of military requirement.
For the reasons given we think that it would be inconvenient
to litigate this latter question before the Court, since it would
be for the Court to pronounce upon evidence of military experts
on each side subjected to cross examination by the other,
whether or not the defence of military requirement had been
made out. It is, of course, possible that the British
authorities would not object to such a course, but we would
have thought it unlikely, and accordingly draw attention to
this aspect of the matter.
2. If it were desired to initiate proceedings, we think a
special declaration under the optional clause should be made.
If this were done we think it would be unnecessary to negotiate
a special agreement for submission to the International Court,
3. We refer to our answer to 1. We do not think His Majesty's
Government could successfully resist the Chinese claim unless upon
the ground of military requirement. As stated, we doubt whether
it would be desirable to litigate this question, but if it
were litigated, it would be necessary to establish that there
was some present or apprehended contingency of a military
character which, from a military point of view, rendered it
impossible to agree to a resumption of Chinese jurisdiction.
4.
Generally, our preference would be that negotiations should
be continued upon the lines on which they are at present proceeding.
We think that any compromise which included some acceptance by the
Chinese of the position that any concession the British Government
might make was not to be construed as an admission of the Chinese
rights to resume jurisdiction would be desirable in British
interests. We say this because, in general, we do not feel that
the British case really is in any sense impregnable.
Apart from
the/