TERRITORIAL CLAIM

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30536, 3 September 1964, Page 17

TERRITORIAL CLAIM

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright?

TOKYO, Sept. 2. A North Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman said that North Vietnam’s territorial waters extend to a 12-mile limit, not three miles “as declared by the United States,” according to a North Vietnam News Agency report. The spokesman was vas quoted as saying that should the United States Imperialists and their agents attempt to violate North Vietnamese boundaries, air-space and territorial waters, North Vietnam would use its rights of self-defence to “smash all their acts of provocation and aggression.”' In Hong Kong, the New China News Agency reported that Chinese leaders, including Mao Tse Tung, had stated in a message to North Vietnam yesterday that "since U.S. imperialism has taken the step of extending the war in Indo-China, it cannot expect North Vietnam to renounce the right of action to fight against aggression.

“Nor can it expect all peace-loving countries and peoples to give up the right of action to assist the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in its fight against aggression.”

China has charged that United States warships intruded into its territorial waters three times between August 13 and September 1.

It issued the 318th “serious warning” against the alleged “military provocations.”