(154 in
53548/37)
198 in do.)
the carriage of arms to China on the railway, they
must be held free to attack it as a military operation.
The carriage of arms on the Canton-Kowloon
Railway conforms with the deliberate policy of H.M.G.
as consistent both with our obligations under the
League of Nations Resolutions and because (to quote
a F.O. telegram to Sir R. Craigie No. 411 of the 20th
October, 1937), "Any undertaking to prohibit the
carriage of munitions of war from Hong Kong to China
by the Canton-Kowloon Railway would constitute
intervention in favour of Japan". In another F.0.
telegram No. 440 to Sir R. Craigie of the 1st November,
1937, it was stated, "There is no ban on the export of
arms to either side and important quantities of
ammunitions have been allowed to be exported to Japan
since the outbreak of hostilities".
That decision in
principle may still be said to stand as the policy of
H.M.G., although by subsequent Cabinet decision
individual applications for the export of armaments to
Japan are to be specially scrutinised.
The latest resolution of the Council of the
League of Nations declared that in view of Japan's
refusal of the invitation sent to her under Article
17(1) of the Covenant, the provisions of Article 16
were applicable in present conditions and that the
Members of the League were entitled not only to act as
before on the basis of the Assembly's finding that the
Japanese attack on China was unjustified, but also to
adopt individually the measures provided for in
Article 16. The Foreign office, however, has been
advised that as article 17 is that, in fact, no now
obligations on Kember States to impose sanctions on
Japan
120