CO885-(10-11) — Page 639

3713.

1

No. 505.

(Hong Kong.)

QUEEN'S ADVOCATE to FOREIGN OFFICE.

Temple, April 8, 1868. MY LORD,

I AM honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Mr. Hammond's letter of the 24th February last, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to me two letters which your Lordship has received from the Secretary of State for the Colonies enclosing copies of a correspondence which has passed between the Governor of Hong Kong and Her Majesty's Consul at Canton, in regard to the seizure by a Chinese cruiser of a junk outward bound from Hong Kong, and Mr. Hammond was pleased to request that I would take these papers into consideration and furnish your Lordship with my opinion thereupon,

I am also honoured with Mr. Hammond's letter of the 31st ultimo, transmitting a copy of a letter from the Board of Trade giving the views of that Department on the proceedings of the Chinese authorities in capturing a junk outward bound from Hong Kong for an alleged breach of customs law.

In obedience to your Lordship's commands, I have the honour to

Report

That it does not exactly appear in what particular waters the Chinese junk was Sir R. Macdonnell, in his Despatch of seized by the Chinese Customs cruiser. November 14, 1867, states that it was considerably within 3 miles from the shore of. Hong Kong; and in another part of the same Despatch he says that the junk was anchored nearer to the Chinese than the English shore. It would appear, therefore, from the comparison of these statements, that the junk must have been anchored somewhere in the narrow sea which separates the Island of Hong Kong from the Chinese mainland, in respect of which the Law Officers have reported to your Lordship on a previous occasion that the medium filum aquæ must be taken to be the divisional line between British and Chinese territorial jurisdiction. I consider that any Chinese junk anchored on the Chinese side of the mid-channel would be amenable to Chinese jurisdiction in all matters of Chinese Customs regulations, and that the Governor of Hong Kong could not properly demand that any such junk seized at such anchorage by the Chinese authorities should be given up to him on the ground that her seizure was unlawful.

I have, &c. (Signed) TRAVERS TWISS.

The Lord Stanley,

&c.

&c.

0 16276,----558.

25.-5/96.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

19

Reference :-

C.O. 885

11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

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