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30656/99
letter of 19/12/ 39 on 30656
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assume that if it were necessary to mark the three mile
strip, care would have beent aken at the time to do so
in accordance with the spirit of Sir R.Finlay's advice.
17.
Sir F.Lugard ir paragraph 9 of his despatch
suggests as a basis of settlement that the Chinese
Government should be invited to acknowledge His
Majesty's territorial rights over waters within the three
mile limit in return for the surrender of all claim to
the waters of Tai Cham Bay, which would be British
territory if the boundary were strictly held to be 113° 52' B.Long. from Lantao to the point where the
meridian cuts the mainland.
18. But before considering this, there is another
point to be noted on which the Chinese Government have
not been consulted. In a despatch No.282 of the 6th
of October 1899, Sir H. Blake raised the question of the
ownership of the foreshore of Mirs Bay and Deep Bay.
By the convention "the area leased to Great Britain...
With the includes the waters of Mirs Bay and Deep Bay".
concurrence of the Foreign Office the Law Officers were asked to report whether the Convention gave Her Majesty's Government any foreshore rights in the two Bays or whether Her Majesty's Government's right were restricted to the user of the waters up to the line of
high water mark.
150/00
"L
19.
The Law Officers (Sir R.Webster and Sir R.
Finlay) held that the Convention gave Her Majesty the right to the whole foreshore, since the Lockhart-Wong memorandum traces the northern boundary of the New Territory along the line of highwater mark. sovereignty under the lease extends to highwater mark
in these buys".
"British
20.
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