TRANSLATION
Minister for Foreign Affairs
No. 141.
Confidential.
His Excellency
29
19th September 1938.
Your Excellency,
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of
Your Excellency's Note No. 119 of the 15th August regarding
the case of the sinking of Chinese fishing boats by a
vessel of the Imperial Navy to the south of Chelong Point
on the 22nd September, 1937.
We have previously set forth our views on this
on the 18th April last enclosing a detailed statement
based upon the report of the Japanese naval authority on
the spot who was responsible for the situation at the time:
The fact is that the case of the British side rests upon
the report of the findings of the Hong Kong Commission of
Enquiry which is compiled entirely upon the basis of the
ex parte statements of uneducated shipwrecked fishermen,
while our contentions are based upon the report of a
responsible authority of the Imperial Navy on the spot.
A fundamental divergence of views between the two sides
is therefore inevitable. For instance, the British side
has concluded in connexion with this case that, in view
of the inferiority of the weapons with which junks are
equipped, it is in the highest degree improbable that the
fishing boats would have been so extremely reckless as to
dare /
the
Sir Robert L.Craigie, K.C.M.G., C.B.,
H.B.M. Ambassador.