15
NO DISTRIBUTION.
Telegram (en clair) from Mr. Blunt, (Canton).
Do
R.
No. 1 Saving.
31st December, 1937.
31st December, 1937.
11th January, 1938.
0:0:0:0
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 Hongkong 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 Hongkong
border. As a fact he carried Hongkong 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 Head-
quarters, and was detained there in a junior officers' quarters
under guard of a sentry until yesterday (December 30th).
4. Then he states that after a final examination by the
Military Court, he was released, handed back his passport and
papers, and escorted to the office of the Special Delegate for
Foreign Affairs where, in fact, he was handed over to members of
my staff, who had been asked to call by the S.D.F.A.
Ι.
impounded