NO DISTRIBUTION.
Decypher.
Sir A. Clark-Kerr (Shanghai).
7th December, 1938.
D.
By wireless
8th December, 1938.
R.
2.40 p.m.
8th December, 1938.
No.1752.
13
IMPORTANT.
Hongkong telegram No. 116 to Tokyo, repeated to Secretary
of State for Colonies telegram 361.
Our experiences in China justify me in urging that no reliance
should be placed on any assurances of non-molestation. On grounds
of humanity and for the sake of our good relations with China it
is essential that these men should not be handed to the Japanese.
The case appears parallel to that of Lone battalion in Shanghai
and internment for period of hostilities appears only possible
course. I fear there would be no possibility of Shanghai
settlement authorities consenting to receive them and that there
are no grounds on which they could fairly be asked to do so.
Addressed to Foreign Office telegram 1752; repeated to
Hongkong telegram 340, Tokyo telegram 1146.