CO129-602-5 Limits of territorial waters 27-10-1949 - 9-12-1949 — Page 19

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53848/49

Dear boates,

The Church House,

Great Smith Street,

London, S. .1.

23 November, 1949

Will you please refer to the Governor of Hong Kong's telegram No.1144 about the limits of the Colony's territorial waters off the western coast of Lantao. I attach a copy of the section of the Hong Kong Interpretation Ordinance of 1911 to which reference is made.

2.

It is apparent from the telegram that Hong Kong have no qualms about their right to exercise

jurisdiction in waters within the boundaries described in the 1911 Ordinance (which except for a discrepancy in the south west corner, correspond with the boundaries of the area leased under the Peking Convention of 1898) and they are in doubt only as regards

the waters off the warten coast of Lantao which lie outside these boundaries.

3. I find after examining pre-war papers that the preliminary question of the limits of Hong Kong territorial waters was considered by the admiralty, Foreign Office and Colonial Office in 1937. It was recognised then not only that the boundaries shown in the map attached to the 1898 Convention excluded certain places what would normally be the territorial waters attached to part of territory lesed but also that those boundaries included waters well beyond the

/customary

P.D. COATES, ES....,

FOREIGN OFFICE.