CO129-562-2 Chung Chi Cheung- appeal against death sentence 1-1-1937 - 31-12-1938 — Page 15

4.

15

In the first of these submissions there is, in our

opinion, no substance. The common law jurisdiction of the

Supreme Court is declared by section 5 of the Supreme

Court Ordinance 1873 to extend to the Colony, and it is

not disputed that the locus of this crime was within the

Colony as defined in the Interpretation Ordinance 1911.

Throughout the arguments both here and in the Court

below it has been agreed that the Chinese Customs Cruiser

Cheung Keng must be treated in all respects as an armed

public vessel of the Republic of China.

Mr. Macnamara's argument on his second point was

supported by a number of citations from the works of

international jurists.

Oppenheim (4th Edition Vo. I. p. 368 para. 172 (a))

after discussing the land, national waters, and territorial

waters of a State, continues:-

In contradistinction to those real parts of State

territory there are some things that are either in every

respect or for some purposes treated as though they were

territorial parts of a State. They are fictional and in

a sense only parts of the territory. Thus men of war

and other public vessels on the high seas as well as

in foreign territorial waters are essentially in every

point treated as though they were floating parts of their

home State".

and again at p. 675 para. 450

"The position of men of war in foreign waters

is characterised by the fact that they are called

'floating portions of the flag state'. For at the present

time there is a customary rule of International law,

universally recognised, that the State owning waters

into which foreign-men-of-war enter must treat them

in every point as though they were floating portions

of their flag state. Crimes committed on board by

persons in the service of the vessel are under the