[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.]
39
57.
From
JAPAN.
Decode and Decypher.
Sir R. Craigie (Tokyo),
8th June,
1939.
D.
7.55 p.m.
8th June, 1939.
R.
2.20 p.m.
8th June, 1939.
No. 531.
R Begins.
Addressed to Commander-in-Chief No. 111.
Press publishes a message from Taihoku to the effect that
at 11.03 a.m. on June 11th[sic] in latitude 22'9" north and longitude 114'38" east a foreign man-of-war which appeared to be a British cruiser fired several shots at an aeroplane of Japan Aviation Company, which had left an undisclosed place (presumably Canton) that morning and was flying at a height of 2,300 metres. The machine was not hit and arrived safely at Taihoku. Several shots were counted, some of which exploded about 100 metres from the plane. The plane was flying well to the east of British territory "so that firing was clearly illegal".
R Ends.
If the true story is that shots were fired at Japanese military aircraft flying across Hongkong territory or waters without permission, action taken was clearly called for, but to forestall any protest I should be grateful for full details.
Repeated to Foreign Office No. 531, Governor Hongkong No. 114 and Embassy Shanghai No. 424.