No.140 (135/70J/1988)
Copied to:
Foreign Office No.686 Hongkong No. 54
BRITISH EMBASSY,
TOKYO.
9th September, 1938.
26
Your xcellency,
#ith reference to Your Excellency's Note
No. 79 of the 3rd June, I have the honour to inform Your Excellency that I have now received certain further explanation regarding the s.s. "Asian" which was detained by the Japanese Naval Authorities from the 7th to the 20th February, 1958, and in respect of which a claim for Hongkong 620,999.84 was presented under cover of my Note No. 67 of the 1st May.
2.
In Your Excellency's Note under reference the detention was defended on the grounds that (1) there was on board the s.s. "asian" no bill of sale; (2) there was no entry in the ship's log prior to the 6th February; (5) although it appeared from the ship's registry that the transfer of nationality took place on the 2nd February, the Captain stated that the ship was transferred at the
end of August, 1957, and the crew gave evidence that the transfer took place about two months previous to the
detention.
5.
With regard to (1) I have the honour to explain to Your xcellency that it is not usual for a British ship to carry a bill of sale in respect of a previous transfer this document being normally kept at the head office of the owners. The s.s. "Asian" carried the most important docu-
/ ments
His Excellency
General Kazushige Ugaki,
His Imperial Japanese Majesty's
Minister for Foreign Affairs,