entitlement – such as ‘the islands have been ours since ancient times’. The result in the South China Sea dispute is the apparently ridiculous situation whereby Britain or France might have as strong a legal claim to the islands as any of the states that border the Sea.
In September 1877, the authorities in the British colony of Labuan (an island off the coast of Borneo) licensed an American named Graham and two Britons named Simpson and James to claim Spratly Island and Amboyna Cay on behalf of the British Crown and then extract from it as many tons of guano as they could carry away on their ships. An announcement was duly posted in the Government Gazette . 1 Other countries may have been closer, other fishermen may have visited the island, other navies may even have sailed past it but Britain was the first to announce it in a newspaper – and that is the kind of evidence that tribunals value. Fromsuch humble beginnings, claims of empire grow. It was the first act of sovereignty by any state in what we now know as the Spratly Islands. Another British licence was issued to the Central Borneo Company in 1889. However, the imperial interest in guano never reached the levels of tea, opium or rubber and its interest in the islands remained mainly one of navigation. Nonetheless Britain has never formally renounced its claim to Spratly Island and Amboyna Cay.
Indeed, Britain discreetly revived its claim in the weeks after April 1930 when the French authorities announced that they'd despatched a warship, the Malicieuse , taken possession of Spratly Island and laid claim to all the other features within a large rectangular area of the South China Sea. The two governments exchanged diplomatic notes and legal arguments for the following two years. At the front of their minds was the apparent danger posed to their colonies by the expansion of the Japanese empire into the region. Faced with a common enemy, neither wished to relinquish its own claim but the British didn't want to undermine France's either. It wasn't until July 1933 that the French government formally annexed six named islands: Spratly or Storm, Amboyna Cay, Itu Aba, North Danger (known to the French as Les Deux Iles), Loaita and Thitu. Another newspaper announcement was placed – in the French government's Journal Officiel . The announcement prompted national hysteria in China but (as we saw in Chapter 2) once the Chinese government had realised that it related to the Spratlys and not to the Paracels, the fuss died down. Contrary to what Chinese officials claim today, newspapers remained bare of official protests or rival annexation notices. The French maintained their claim on paper but did little to enforce it on land until 1938 when they erected a weather station on Itu Aba, 2 which was occupied by Japanese forces during the Second World War. As we've seen, the Japanese abandoned it some time between a US bombing raid on 1 May 1945 and a US naval landing on 18 November 1945. The next sailors to arrive were French, aboard the minesweeper FR Chevreuil , on 5 October 1946. They erected a stele reclaiming the island for France and renewing the annexation of 1933. The Philippine government asserted a claim to the Spratlys in July 1946 but did nothing to enforce it for decades.
Until the end of the Second World War, the Chinese Navy had been incapable of even reaching the Spratly Islands. It was only with the supplyof ships, maps and training by the United States that the Republic of China (ROC) government was able to mount an expedition and make the kind of claim that would be recognised by an international court. On 12 December 1946, two ROC Navy ships, the Taiping and Zhongye (the former USS Decker and USS LST 1056 respectively), arrived at Itu Aba. According to Chinese accounts, the ships’ crews removed a Japanese stele from the island and erected a Chinese one in its place. They appear not to have noticed the French one – or not thought it worth
In September 1877, the authorities in the British colony of Labuan (an island off the coast of Borneo) licensed an American named Graham and two Britons named Simpson and James to claim Spratly Island and Amboyna Cay on behalf of the British Crown and then extract from it as many tons of guano as they could carry away on their ships. An announcement was duly posted in the Government Gazette . 1 Other countries may have been closer, other fishermen may have visited the island, other navies may even have sailed past it but Britain was the first to announce it in a newspaper – and that is the kind of evidence that tribunals value. Fromsuch humble beginnings, claims of empire grow. It was the first act of sovereignty by any state in what we now know as the Spratly Islands. Another British licence was issued to the Central Borneo Company in 1889. However, the imperial interest in guano never reached the levels of tea, opium or rubber and its interest in the islands remained mainly one of navigation. Nonetheless Britain has never formally renounced its claim to Spratly Island and Amboyna Cay.
Indeed, Britain discreetly revived its claim in the weeks after April 1930 when the French authorities announced that they'd despatched a warship, the Malicieuse , taken possession of Spratly Island and laid claim to all the other features within a large rectangular area of the South China Sea. The two governments exchanged diplomatic notes and legal arguments for the following two years. At the front of their minds was the apparent danger posed to their colonies by the expansion of the Japanese empire into the region. Faced with a common enemy, neither wished to relinquish its own claim but the British didn't want to undermine France's either. It wasn't until July 1933 that the French government formally annexed six named islands: Spratly or Storm, Amboyna Cay, Itu Aba, North Danger (known to the French as Les Deux Iles), Loaita and Thitu. Another newspaper announcement was placed – in the French government's Journal Officiel . The announcement prompted national hysteria in China but (as we saw in Chapter 2) once the Chinese government had realised that it related to the Spratlys and not to the Paracels, the fuss died down. Contrary to what Chinese officials claim today, newspapers remained bare of official protests or rival annexation notices. The French maintained their claim on paper but did little to enforce it on land until 1938 when they erected a weather station on Itu Aba, 2 which was occupied by Japanese forces during the Second World War. As we've seen, the Japanese abandoned it some time between a US bombing raid on 1 May 1945 and a US naval landing on 18 November 1945. The next sailors to arrive were French, aboard the minesweeper FR Chevreuil , on 5 October 1946. They erected a stele reclaiming the island for France and renewing the annexation of 1933. The Philippine government asserted a claim to the Spratlys in July 1946 but did nothing to enforce it for decades.
Until the end of the Second World War, the Chinese Navy had been incapable of even reaching the Spratly Islands. It was only with the supplyof ships, maps and training by the United States that the Republic of China (ROC) government was able to mount an expedition and make the kind of claim that would be recognised by an international court. On 12 December 1946, two ROC Navy ships, the Taiping and Zhongye (the former USS Decker and USS LST 1056 respectively), arrived at Itu Aba. According to Chinese accounts, the ships’ crews removed a Japanese stele from the island and erected a Chinese one in its place. They appear not to have noticed the French one – or not thought it worth
Similar Books
