CO129-490 - Public Offices - 1925 — Page 606

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As regards the minutes on 7495, I would point out that there is no reason for following in Straits and Hong Kong · a similar course to that taken in Ceylon, since the circumstances are presumably different. Ceylon is not directly-concerned with the effects of the importation of arms into China, and, moreover, any ac- tion taken by Ceylon to prevent the carriage of arms in transit would almost immediately fail of effect since vessels carrying arms to China would make use of some other port of call. While I do not suggest that we. should take into account the loss which Ceylon would suffer from this diversion of shipping, yet I am seriously concerned that the Ceylon Government should not be involved in legal proceedings, the result of which might be doubtful. Although the Ceylon Law Officers have held that the Customs Ordinances and the Ordinances governing the importation and exportation of arms can be held to apply to arms entering Colombo in transit, yet this is not the view which the Secretary of State's legal advisers have expressed, and the attitude of the Board of Customs in this country seems to imply that while they, of course, maintain that the Imperial Acts of a similar nature would apply to goods in transit, yet they are not at all anxious to put the matter to the test, and in practice they do not enforce such prohibi- tione. In the circumstances, it would be a very serious matter for the Ceylon Government if a case were brought in the Ceylon Courts by a shipper of arms backed by all the force of a foreign government, as might well have

Italian happened in the particular case of the battalion aero- planes recently detained, if the Imperial Government are prepared to enforce similar prohibitions in this country, it would, of course, be possible by additional

legislation in Ceylon, to put the right of seizure in

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such cases beyond all question, but measures of this

kind may, perhaps, be discussed at the proposed Inter-departmental Conference.

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