TNAG-0908-FCO40-1118-Legislation-for-immigration-into-Hong-Kong-1979 — Page 9

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CONFIDENTIAL}

29th August 1979

(5)

Under hot pursuit, which appears as Article 23 of the 1958 Convention on the High Seas, a ship may be pursued and arrested on the high seas if the authorities of the coastal state have good reason to believe that the ship has violated the laws and regulations of that state. The pursuit must be commenced when the ship or one of its boat or other craft working as a team with the 'mother' ship are within the territorial waters.

Confirmation could be sought from the FCO as to what action R.N. ships would take in such cases.

There remains the question of Chinese waters.

Under Article 24 of the Geneva Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone 1958,

a coastal state may have, in addition to territorial waters, a contiguous zone extending up to 12 miles from its coast in which it may exercise control necessary to

a)

b)

prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary regulations within its territory or territorial sea

punish infringement of the above regulations committed in its territory or territorial sea.

It seems, however, for practical purposes, that Hong Kong does not have such a contiguous zone, but is surrounded by Chinese waters.

The FCO's comments refer only to the high seas. I presume that they have consciously omitted reference to Chinese waters, on the basis that all action to be taken therein would depend on agreement with the Chinese authorities.

In discussing the question of action on the high seas, however, one might have to determine the extent of Chinese waters to know, particularly in a marginal case, the status of the waters in which action was to be taken. On the other hand, this problem would only arise if the status of the waters made any difference to the action to be taken, which brings us back to the terms of any agreement with the Chinese authorities."

5.

I should be grateful for your comments on these particular aspects which although somewhat academic could, in the light of our experiences this year, fairly easily

CONFIDENTIAL |

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