§ Mr. TREVELYANasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether there is a law in Ceylon prohibiting fishing for chanks over an area of waters reaching in some places 20 miles or more from the coast of Ceylon; and whether this prohibition applies to foreign vessels fishing in such waters?
§ Mr. ORMSBY-GOREUnder Ordinance 18 of 1890, fishing for thanks is prohibited within the limits bounded by a straight line drawn from a point six miles westward of Talaimannar to a point six miles westward of the shore two miles south of Talaivilla. The claim of the Ceylon Government to this fishery is based on immemorial user by successive sovereigns of the island.