THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT
66
FAR EASTERN (JAPAN).
CONFIDENTIAL.
August 10, 1939.
SECTION 2.
71
[F 8685/874/23]
Sir R. Craigie to Viscount Halifax.—(Received August 10.)
(No. 528.)
Copy No. 1
HIS Majesty's representative at Tokyo presents his compliments to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and, with reference to Tokyo despatch No. 441 of the 14th June, 1939, has the honour to transmit to him a copy of Political Diary No. 6 for June 1939.
Tokyo, July 13, 1939.
Enclosure.
Political Diary No. 6 for June 1939.
(This diary is a brief and informal review of current topics. Although it is largely based on extracts from the Japanese press and is not in the nature of a considered report, the diary should be treated as confidential and should not be publicly quoted or reproduced.)
FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
United Kingdom. Tientsin Question.
196. During the month under review this issue dominated all others, the question of the four alleged terrorists gradually becoming merged in the more general problem of the position of the British Concession at Tientsin as a whole. On the 1st June General Homma, commander of the Japanese troops in the area, requested His Majesty's Consul-General to reply by noon on the 7th June whether or not the four men would be handed over unconditionally to the district court; in the absence of a reply he would assume refusal. On the same day the Foreign Office ruled that two other men charged with throwing bombs should be handed over, but maintained that no evidence had been supplied which would justify the surrender of the original four suspects. As, however, it became clear that the Japanese authorities were not satisfied with this proposal and intended to proceed to a forcible blockade of the British and French Concessions, the Foreign Office instructed His Majesty's Ambassador at Tokyo on the 5th June to point out to the Minister for Foreign Affairs that His Majesty's Government were going a long way to meet Japanese wishes, but that it would be repugnant to the British sense of justice to hand over to execution men against whom they had received no evidence of the crime alleged. Sir Robert Craigie carried out these instructions on the 6th June. The following day the British Concession authorities issued a proclamation that in future any breach of neutrality would be dealt with either by handing over the culprits to the de facto authorities for trial or by expelling them from the concession, in accordance with the seriousness of the crime committed.
197. As, however, the Japanese preparations for a blockade of the settle- ments continued, Sir Robert Craigie informed the Minister for Foreign Affairs on the 10th June that it was essential that a stop should be put to these proceedings, pointing out that it was inexplicable that the Japanese authorities should prefer the precipitation of such a crisis to the production of evidence against the men in question. On the same day the United States Chargé d'Affaires urged moderation on the Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, who suggested that the United States Consul-General at Tientsin might use his good offices in the dispute. On the 13th June Mr. Dooman further informed the Vice- Minister for Foreign Affairs that His Majesty's Government would agree to the
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