CO129-582-6 Salvage operations on the wreck of the Japanese S.S. JIN KAI MARU 22-5-1939 - 27-10-1939 — Page 34

XXX CONFIDENTIAL (2)

3.1 MAY 1939

Copies to:- H.B.M. Ambassador, Tokyo. No.41.

Commander-in-Chief, China Station. General Officer Commanding

The British Troops in China.

Sir,

Krog.

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

HONG KONG.

22nd May, 1939.

34

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I have the honour to inform you that application has

been made to this Government by a Japanese subject, Mr. Y. Iwata

acting on behalf of Messrs. Okada Gumi, Limited, Osaka, for

permission to conduct salvage and breaking up operations on the

wreck of the Japanese S.S. "Jin Kai Maru" which was sunk off the island of Waglan in the waters of this Colony as long ago

as 25th March, 1937.

2. Under the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and

Navigation, 1911, Japanese subjects are entitled to most-favoured

nation treatment and, generally, to the same treatment as British

subjects in British territory; and Article XXIII of the Treaty deals with wrecks and entitles the owners to claim them paying

"only for expenses incurred in the preservation of the property, together with the salvage or other expenses, which would have been payable in the like case of a wreck or stranding of a

national vessel."

3. The ownership of the S.S. "Jin Kai Maru" passed in due course to the Tokyo Fire and Marine Insurance Association, who have sold their rights to the present applicants.

4. In view of the terms of the 1911 Treaty it might normally appear difficult from a strictly legal point of view to prevent the present owners from claiming the ship; it is

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

MALCOLM MACDONALD, M.P.,

&c.,, &c., ̈ &c.