6
territory.
Casualties from this bombing were
one Sikh policeman and six Chinese refugees;
number of wounded is not known.
the
One of these machines then circled again
and machine-gunned the British railway station
killing two Chinese. The other machine dived over
the Lowu camp and attacked a stationary train one
mile inside British territory, dropping two bombs
one of which caused considerable damage to the train.
These attacks were unexcusable since the
frontier at the Sham Chun River was clearly defined and the Japanese had already promised to note it on their maps.
The same day Col. Ishino in Hong Kong asked for an interview with Brigadier Grasett to
express regret on behalf of the Japanese army for
the incident. But since it was thought the
Japanese might maintain that the incident was closed
by this apology, Brigadier Grasett refused to see Col. Ishino, with the Governor's concurrence.
By this time Sir R. Craigie had made in
Tokio a preliminary protest. About the same time
the Japanese Consul-General in Canton made to
Mr. Blunt the astonishing and absurd statement that
"Japanese military headquarters feared a bomb had been dropped within British territory near Shan Chun and
in the neighbourhood of a locomotive. If this should
prove so, the Japanese military authorities desired
to express deep regret at this error and a wish to
pay compensation for any damage". The Governor's
reply to this suggestion is registered at (10).
Later Mr. Okazaki telephoned to Mr. Blunt and put forward the proposals contained in (9).
The