CO129-573-2 Export of torpedo boats to China 14-5-1938 - 5-10-1938 — Page 62

S.

M.03084/38.

CONFIDENTIAL AND IMMEDI ATE.

462

Military Branch, ADMIRALTY,

S. W. 1.

2nd June, 1938.

Dear Gent,

The time has now come when it is urgently

necessary for us to make up our minds about the two coastal

motorboats built by Messrs. Thornycroft for the Chinese

Government and now on their way to Hong Kong in the

S.S. SOMALI which is due to arrive there on the 8th June.

If the Barcelona Convention and Statute on the

Freedom of Transit apply in this case, as you suggest in

your letter to Seal of the 14th May, then there seems to

be no alternative but to let the boats go on. On looking

into the question, however, we feel considerable doubt

whether there would be any obligation under the Statute

in this instance. Article I of the Statute says that

vessels shall be deemed to be in transit across territory

under the sovereignty of one of the contracting states when

the passage across such territory is only a portion of a

complete journey beginning and terminating beyond the

frontier of the state across whose territory the transit

takes place. Since the M.T.Bs will have started their

journey from this country, their passage through Hong Kong

would not appear to be transit within the meaning of the

Statute, unless, for some reason of which we are unaware,

the Colony must, for this purpose, be held to be a separate

territory. If there is any doubt on the point, we feel

that legal opinion ought to be obtained should the general

view be against allowing the boats to go on. We agree

G.E.J. Gent, Esq.,

D.S.O., O.B.E., M.C.,

COLONIAL OFFICE,

S. W. 1.

that /