Casd 12
level to 9
In any further communication on this subject, please quote
No. F 4565/4/10
and address-
not to any person by name
'but to-
*
The Under-Secretary of State,"
Foreign Office,
London, S.W.1.
FOREIGN OFFICE.
S.W.1.
12 MAY ES
11th May, 1938.
69
9
sir,
I am directed by Viscount Halifax to refer to
Foreign Office letter No.F 4565/4/10, of the 4th May,
enclosing copies of two telegrams from His Majesty's Ambassador
at Tokyo on the subject of the sinking of Hong Kong fishing
junks by Japanese war vessels last autumn.
2.
The informal naval discussions referred to by Sir
Robert Craigie are those which he had been authorised to
initiate with the Japanese Government with a view to inducing
them to give certain assurances in connexion with their naval
construction intentions. These assurances, if forthcoming
before the end of the three months period (1st July next)
permitted for the present escalation discussions on the upper
limits of capital ships, sub-category (a), and if regarded as
satisfactory by the signatories of the London Naval Treaty,1936,
might have the result of making unnecessary escalation above the
present capital ship displacement limit of 35,000 tons. The
chances of obtaining such assurances were sufficiently slender
when Sir Robert Craigie drafted his telegram No.541: from a
subsequent telegram it appears that there is now practically no
hope that the Japanese will return a satisfactory answer.
The Under-Secretary of State,
Colonial Office.
Nevertheless/