CONFIDENTIAL.
2.
Government Hor
Just.
28th March1917.
450
sir,
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt
of your Cypher telegram of the 21st inst:, and to inform
you that I have carefully noted the instructions
contained therein.
The exception taken by the Japanese Embassy,
to my remarks nearly a year after they were made, causes
me no little surprise. The reference to the Philippine
Islands had its foundation, of course, in the then much
discussed subject of the grant of independence to those
Islands; and in any case I fail to see how the mention
of those Islands could possibly give umbrage to the
Japanese Covernment, any more than to various other
Governments. There remains, therefore, only the reference
to "heathen lands" to which exception might be taken.
I recognise that the substitution of the word "non-
christian" for the word "heathen" might have been more
happy. At the same time, I did not use the word "heathen"
in any sence of disparagement. It was not an unusual
word to use at a Missionary Keeting.
The Right Honbl.
3. The exception
Walter Long, K.P.,&c.,&c.,&c.
H.M's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies.