[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government, and should be returned to the Foreign Office if not required for official use.]
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6812 (F-6654/130/10).
To JAPAN.
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Code telegram to Sir R. Craigie (Tokyo).
Foreign Office, 23rd September, 1937.
5.30 p.m.
No. 340. (R).
Your telegram No. 407 [of the 18th September; blockade of
the China coast].
lines.
Please address a Note to Japanese Government on the following
The statement which they have issued is difficult to follow.
If transfer of a vessel to British registry in accordance with
English law has not taken place, the vessel in question does not
fulfill the conditions entitling her to fly the British flag;
and this fact will be duly revealed in suspicious cases by a
visit for flag verification purposes.
If valid transfer has
taken place, and the vessel is entitled to fly the British flag,
the fact that transfer has taken place since the 25th August is
completely irrelevant. It is, however, presumed that Japanese
do not mean to imply that they will not recognise valid transfers subsequent to the 25th August; such attitude would be inadmissible
and His Majesty's Government could not acquiesce in it. Nor can
legal validity of any transfer under English law be determined by
any but British authorities.
At the same time you may inform the Japanese Government orally
that, in point of fact, measures have been taken which will ensure
that any applications for transfers which may be made will be
scrutinised with the utmose care with a view to making certain
that all the necessary conditions are fulfilled.
Addressed to Tokyo No. 340; repeated to Nanking No. 319
and Commander-in-Chief No. -.