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zone, and to the assumption by the Zone Committee of the City Government's administrative rights in the area. The minutes of the Refugee Zone Committee meeting form enclosure No. 2() to this despatch.
3. The generalissimo left Hankow by China National Aviation Corporation plane for Hengyang on the night of 24th October, and General Lo Cho-ying completed the withdrawal of his troops from the Wuhan area, an operation which had lasted about ten days, during the night of the 25th October. The retreat was ably and speedily carried out, and so sudden was the disappearance of the Chinese front that the Japanese troops advancing along the southern bank of the Yangtze were unable to keep pace with or even to locate the Chinese Wuchang on occupation was found to be deserted by military and civilians army. alike, and the Japanese thrust in the Hsienning sector was successfully avoided by the Chinese troops in their retreat to Changsha. Members of the consular staff who witnessed the withdrawal through the western suburbs of Hankow can testify to the cheerfulness and orderly behaviour of the Chinese troops.
4. On the 24th October, the British Naval Relief Force was transferred from the ships to headquarters in two of the consulate houses and thereupon undertook, in co-operation with some forty civilian volunteers and the Chinese police force of S.A.D. 3, the policing of the S.A.D's 2 and 3. A small force of foreign volunteers took over the policing of the ex-German Concession area where two British gunboats were stationed. An electrical expert from the British naval forces contrived at the admiral's instructions to disconnect certain sus- picious looking wires in Japanese buildings in S.A.D. 3 and the naval landing party and volunteers accomplished a useful work in transferring to the bed of the Yangtze some 4 tons of dynamite deposited by the Chinese army in the Nisshin Kisen Kaisha and Nippon Yusen Kaisha buildings, the Yokohama Specie Bank, the Bank of Taiwan and other Japanese buildings.
It had been no secret for some time that the Chinese had placed explosives in a good many buildings. This had formed the subject of repeated represen- tations to the garrison commander and many other Chinese officials, including the generalissimo himself, but the only information that could be elicited was that it had not yet been decided whether the buildings would be blown up and assurances that we should be given at least twelve hours notice before it was done. Chinese nerves, however, were strained and the possibility that some reckless extremist might let his feelings run away with his judgment or discipline was sufficiently present to cause a good deal of apprehension among residents.
5. A party of some half-dozen Japanese marines landed at the Japanese Concession from a motor launch at 8 AM on the 26th October, and shortly left again after submitting to the necessary attentions of a group of foreign journalists. At 3 P.M. the roar of Japanese sampans was heard from down river and by 4 o'clock a fleet of five destroyers, sloops and smaller craft with transport vessels in their rear was drawn up along the entire ex-concession front. The military had made their entrance one hour previously when they perpetrated the first invasion of the refugee area by marching a detachment of infantry through a section of S.A.D. 1 en route for the Chinese city. Before nightfall the Japanese gendarmerie had assumed control of the entire S.A.D. 1 area, following an inti- mation to Rear-Admiral Holt. Foreign volunteers continued to police S.A.D. 2 during the night of the 26th-27th October, but were withdrawn on the morning of the 27th, when the policing of the area was taken over by Japanese marines. The invaders can hardly have been surprised on reaching their concession to find that it had been thoroughly destroyed, and it is worth noting that the explosions which made the night of the 26th so memorable (see enclosure No. 3(')) were mostly confined to that area, though several military and police headquarters in the Chinese city and at Wuchang were dynamited. Japanese buildings in the concession areas, partly owing to consular representations and partly to action by His Majesty's navy (see paragraph 4), were finally left intact, while it is said that the general immunity accorded to Chinese properties throughout the three cities was obtained by the judicious expenditure of several million dollars which were passed by the native chamber of commerce to the military authorities.
6. On the morning of the 27th, the rear-admiral, at a meeting held at his residence which was attended by the acting consul-general, the Japanese head of gendarmerie and a major representing the military command, intimated his willingness to withdraw naval forces from the S.A.D. 2 and S.A.D. 3 (see my
(1) Not printed.
3
telegram No. 102 to Shanghai). At the request of the Japanese representative, the British naval landing party continued to patrol the area and man the gates with the exception of the Bund entrances where Japanese police were stationed. On the morning of the 28th, a contingent of some 800 Japanese infantry demanded access to S.A.D. 3 at the Tientsin Road gate, and on being admitted by the British sentries were escorted by special police through the S.A.D. 3 to the customs-house. Meanwhile, the question of policing the area had again formed the subject of a conversation between the rear-admiral and representatives of the Japanese special police and naval forces at which the Director of S.A.D. 3 happened to be present. At this meeting, the minutes of which have already been communicated in my telegram No. 105 of the 28th October, the Japanese officials lost no time in signifying their acceptance of the offer which Rear-Admiral Holt had made on the previous day regarding the withdrawal of his men in S.A.D. 3 in favour of the Japanese gendarmerie. The outcome of these deliberations, though no formal agreement was made or was possible, given the nature of the contracting parties. was the ceremonial handing over of control of the S.A.D. 3 police to the Japanese gendarmerie at a parade held outside the rear-admiral's residence at 11 A.M. on the 29th October. As stated in my despatch I immediately wrote, on learning the nature of the assurance given at this meeting, to the head of the Japanese police, pointing out that the assumption by the Japanese authorities of policing duties in S.A.D. 3 was not in accordance with the administrative rights enjoyed by British subjects.
After receiving the call of the newly appointed Japanese Consul-General, Mr. Y. Hanawa, I wrote enclosing a copy of my letter to the head of gendarmerie, and stated that His Majesty's Government reserved full rights in the S.A.D. 3. area according to the provisions of the Chen-O'Malley Agreement, which I con- sidered had not been affected by the agreement entered into by the rear-admiral. At a meeting of the British Chamber of Commerce on the 1st November, the question of the policing of S.A.D.3 was discussed, and the agreement, which entailed the virtual suppression of the S.A.D. 3 Chinese police in favour of Japanese gendarmerie, came in for widespread criticism. A motion was carried to urge the British authorities in Shanghai, by means of the British Chamber of Commerce. to do their utmost to prevent further concessions to the Japanese in defiance of the British Government's treaty rights in S.A.D. 3.
7. The days intervening since the occupation have not been in any way remarkable. The Japanese military police responsible for the welfare of S.A.D. 3 have carried out their duties conscientiously on the whole. Property marked with British consular notices has been with one exception scrupulously respected and misunderstandings have in most cases been cleared up. There has been no disorder or insulting behaviour, but British subjects are naturally chafing under curfew regulations which confine them to the area, owing to the closing of gates. which were erected for very different purposes, between the hours of 6 P.M. to 6 A.M. The Japanese Consul-General has, however, promised to use his good offices to obtain an abatement of the latter nuisance. During the day-time there has been accorded an absolute freedom of movement, and were any trade, or any prospects of such, restored, the situation would not be without hope.
8. To return to the fortunes of the safety zone, events have proved that the invading forces had received no instructions to avoid entering the designated area, and that the Japanese command only considered itself bound to refrain from armed attack on the zone. The Hankow Safety Zone project has con- sequently not met with the success which the painstaking efforts of its organisers deserved. The behaviour of the Japanese soldiery has not, however, given rise to much adverse criticism by the foreigners in charge of the refugees, though their actions, had the Chinese made any attempt to defend the city, might well have been very different. The refugees, who had, the day after the Japanese entry, mostly congregated in the streets of S.A.D.3, have now been transported to a zone designated by the Japanese on the banks of the Han River at Wu Sheng Miao, the boundaries of which are policed by Japanese gendarmerie. The Safety Zone Committee has set up its headquarters in this new area and is now preparing the organisation of a police force recruited from refugees for the interior administration and sanitation of the zone. The inhabitants have been free from molestation (with the exception, which has just been reported, of the brutal murder of a Chinese by a drunken Japanese soldier who contrived to elude the sentries and has now been handed over to the Japanese authorities
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