CO129-542-1 China- traffic in arms 31-10-1932 - 9-2-1934 — Page 149

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arms, namely the China Arms Embargo, had been abrogated and

the machines now in question if the circumstances of their

transit through the Colony complied with any of the descriptions

in Article 1 were clearly entitled to the full benefits of

the Convention since it had been established by contracts

produced to my officers that the machines had been ordered

in the United Kingdom by certain persons or authorities in

Canton, and to that extent they were obviously "in transit"

on their arrival in the Colony. The only point of doubt was

whether the unpacking of the parts of the machines and their

erection as complete machines at the Colony's Aerodrome

constituted something more than the operations mentioned in

Article 1.

The Officer Administering the Government being desirous of obtaining an authoritative expression of opinion

on this matter laid the whole case before you in his confid-

ential despatch of the 14th July, 1932.

On the other hand it is to be observed that American

Aeroplane Manufacturers who are debarred from using the Kai Tak Aerodrome as an erection depot owing to the non-particip-

ation of the United States Government in the International

Air Convention are bringing their machines to Hong Kong and

transhipping them to Canton in their original packages and

while there is no reason to believe that these transactions

are not adequately covered by the necessary permits, it will be obvious that the Government of this Colony could not in any case intervene without breach of the obligations of His Majesty's

Government under the Barcelona Convention. Moreover in view

of the statements made on the occasion of the new embargo announced by His Majesty's Government on the 28th February last to the effect that the United States' Government had no

power to prohibit the exportation of arms, it would appear that

if