Northern (N): Soviet Union (NS). Regulations Governing the Protection of State Frontiers and Airspace

A file of correspondence concerning Soviet international relations. The documents discuss the passing of a new law by the Soviet government that extends the limit of Soviet territorial waters to twelve miles from the Soviet coastline, and ensures that any foreign merchant ships passing through Soviet territorial waters can be forced to travel along a "recommended course". The documents also cover how an international conference held in 1958 to try and establish an international standard for the extent of territorial waters failed to reach an agreement, with a vote to set the standard at six miles from a nation's coastline failing "by a narrow margin". Other documents comment on how the British government does not "recognise claims to a territorial sea in excess of a limit of the three miles" from a nation's coastline; and the British government's attempts to organise an international protest against the Soviet law.