Copy.
Enclosure No.2.
11
To:
SAVINGRAM
Foreign Office, London.
From:
H.M. Consul-General, Canton.
Date:
31st December, 1937.
No. 1.
En clair
Addressed to Foreign Office Savingram No. 1.
(by Air Mail), repeated to Embassy Peking Savingram No.4.
Embassy Shanghai Savingram No.6., Governor Hong Kong
Savingram No. 1. (all by Safe Hand)
In case questions should be asked regarding arrest of Joseph James Richard, a British Eurasian subject,
the facts are briefly as follows.
2
On October 29th the Chinese authorities asked me
privately if I could obtain any information about this
individual. I asked the Hong Kong Police unofficially and
they replied that he was well known to their department.
I was aware that the Chinese thought the man was a Japanese
spy, but from this reply I assumed that his activities were
otherwise.
3. On the morning of December 6th, according to
Richard's story to me yesterday, he proceeded on his private
legitimate business to Shumchun, in Chinese territory just
over the Hong Kong border. As a fact he carried Hong Kong
Passport No. 8290 of 21st February 1933 valid for travel
in the British Empire, Japan and China, showing him to be
a British subject by birth. He states that he was arrested
by armed Chinese detectives, taken on the afternoon express
to Canton, sent direct to Military Headquarters, and was
detained there in a junior officers' quarters under guard
of a sentry until yesterday (December 30th).
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