[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government, and should be returned to the Foreign Office if not required for official use.]
FROM JAPAN.
Decode.
Sir R. Craigie (Tokyo)
23rd February, 1939.
D.
1.00 p.m.
23rd February, 1939.
R.
9.30 a.m.
23rd February, 1939.
No. 174 (R)
IMMEDIATE .
VVVVVVVVV
My telegram No.172.
When handing me the note the Minister for Foreign Affairs
stated that I might assure my Government that adequate
measures would be taken to ensure that there would be no
repetition of such an incident. He then read to me a
telegram received from the Japanese military authorities in
South China admitting the dropping of four bombs and machine
gunning, but maintaining that only one Japanese aeroplane had
flown over British territory. Cause of the incident was
stated to be that the airman had mistaken his direction and
thought that he was bombing in Chinese territory north of the
frontier instead of to the south as subsequently transpired.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs added that it was quite out
of the question that any Japanese airman would purposely commit an act which would oblige his government to apologize
to a foreign government. I replied that this might well be
the case but that nevertheless the error was a very serious
one, calculated to produce international complications and that I felt sure that you would require at least an assurance that disciplinary measures would be taken against the airmen responsible. Arita agreed as to the seriousness of the error but stated that he could not give this assurance without again consulting the military authorities, which he would do at once.
Addressed to Foreign Office No.174; repeated to Shanghai No.147; Hongkong No.25; Cantón 12:
73