2.
The police authorities further report that two unexploded shells were found on the beach and that a house on the beach was hit by splinters. The Japanese naval party landed without any permit from the authorities of the Colony and took a number of chickens from local houses.
2. The Japanese government will doubtless agree that the action of the Japanese destroyer was in all respects wholly unjustified and illegal. In the first place, there was an attack upon a vessel while within British territorial waters. The subsequent action of the destroyer in removing the vessel from the place in British territory where she had, as a result of this illegal attack, been beached, is equally unwarranted and inexcusable. Finally there was an unauthorised landing of armed Japanese forces on British territory.
3. The illegal nature of these violations of British sovereignty and jurisdiction is so clear that His Majesty's Government can only suppose that the local Japanese naval authorities are in ignorance of the correct course of conduct to be followed in such cases; the more so as this is not the first instance of its kind.
4. His Majesty's Government do not doubt but that the Japanese Government will share their view of this incident; they accordingly expect to receive at an early date an assurance that the strictest instructions have been issued to ensure that the territories and territorial waters of Hongkong are fully respected. At the same time, they request to be informed or the nature of the disciplinary action which has been taken against those responsible for
this deplorable occurrence.
5.
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