COPY.
From ..... The Commodore, HONG KONG.
Date ..... 25th July, 1935.
No. H.K.409.
THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, CHINA STATION.
To
Subject ..
BOUNDARIES OF HONGKONG.
15
It is submitted for consideration that the boundaries of the Colony of Hongkong, as established by the Convention of 1898, may be included in the China Station Order Book. An extract from Hongkong Ordinance No. 31 of 1911, Part IV, "Definition", giving the Colony's limits, is attached.
If this is approved it is requested that a note may be added that:-
2.
"Under the Convention of 1898, there is expressly "reserved to Chinese warships, whether neutral or "otherwise, the right to use the waters of Mirs Bay "and Deep Bay."
3.
I am advised by His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government that His Majesty's Government also claims the usual territorial rights over waters within three miles from the shore where the limits defined are less that this; that is, on the Western and South Western Boundaries. His Excellency informs me, however, that this information is derived from a confidential despatch and suggests that it should not be promulgated in the China Station Order Book without the sanction of His Majesty's Government.
It is submitted that, if thought fit, this should be issued separately in China Station Confidential Memoranda, with cross-references to the China Station Order Book, or application made to the Home Government for permission to issue in the China Station Order Book.
4. It will be noted that the area over which jurisdiction is claimed is in many places much outside the three mile limit.
I
I consider that there might be difficulty in enforcing such a claim against any nation other than China (from whom the lease of the high seas is held); or, on the other hand, that open claim to such an extent from the land might prejudice the British Government's usual refusal to recognise more than a three mile limit: but I am informed by His Excellency that "H.M.Government would claim jurisdiction against all Nations over all waters embraced by the definition in the Interpretation Ordinance whether within three miles of British soil or not", subject of course to the reservation referred to in paragraph 2 above.
(signed) C.G.Sedgwick.
COMMODORË.
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