F 3278/4/10.
FOREIGN OFFICE
April
193 8
60
Sir Robert Craigie,
Tokyo.
No.
Telegram.
Cypher.
Your telegram No. 371 (of 24th March:
blockade of South China coast).
You should inform the Japanese Government
that His Majesty's Government regret that they
are unable to comply with the requests contained
in the identic Notes 10 and 11 using as many of
the following reasons as you consider suitable.
A. Routing.
(1) If His Majesty's Government advised
vessels to follow the route prescribed by
the Japanese, many of them might comply with
this advice, but there would be a danger that
those which did not, either because they
chose to disregard the advice or through
stress of weather, might be assumed to be
hostile vessels by the Japanese and might
be treated as such.
(2) There would be nothing to prevent
hostile vessels using this route and
masquerading as "neutrals".
/(3)