CO129-558-5 Territorial limits of Colony 28-12-1935 - 19-2-1936 — Page 5

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area were concerned were confirmed without

comment by the Boundary Delimitation Commission

(page 132 of E.66). In a Proclamation issued

by the Governor shortly before the ceded territory

was taken over in 1899 he states the boundaries

of the ceded area and adds "All the islands

situated within those boundaries are within the

leased area, as are all the waters of Mirs Bay

and Deep Bay". This wording suggests that

there was some distinction between the claim

over the waters of the two Bays as compared with

the high seas other than the islands included

in the rectangular area.

(Page 158 of E.66).

Library numbers:

Hang

Kong

and

Hong Kong

27

76"

However, Mr. Chamberlain in his

despatch to the Governor of the 6th January,

1899, declared (page 94 of E.66) that -

"There is no question as to the

waters of the Colony, the limits being

clearly marked in the map attached to

and which should

the Convention

be closely followed in any definition

in the proposed new Ordinance".

In 1900 certain questions as to the

claim over Mirs Bay and Deep Bay were referred

to the Law Officers (page 376 of E.66) but that

correspondence does not contain any comment on

the claim to the waters South, East and West of

the Island of Hong Kong.

*

I have looked up charts of the

rectangular area of sea which the 1898 Convention

demarcated and there are small islands dotted

about within the area but none within some

miles apparently of the south-eastern point of

If there were at the time good

the rectangle.

reasons