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the honour to state that, while His Majesty's ships and
aircraft have general orders to do their utmost to avoid
any incident with the Imperial Japanese forces, His
Majesty's Government could not undertake, even if it were
practicable, to give advance notification of the movements
of their naval and air units over so large an area as that
covered by Your Excellency's request. However, as the
Imperial Japanese Government will be aware, the area within
which units at Hong Kong are accustomed to exercise has
already been communicated to the Imperial Japanese
Authorities, together with an indication of the times when
exercises are likely to take place.
4.
As regards merchant ships, His Majesty's
Government feel obliged to insist upon the right of British
vessels to proceed to any point in China, and they are
unable to depart from their previous attitude regarding
notification of the movements of merchant vessels, which,
for the reasons explained in the letter which I had the
honour to address on the 29th October, 1937, to the
Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, they consider to be
impracticable. While they are always ready to make any
practicable contribution towards minimising the risk of
accidents, they must look to the Japanese forces, vessels
and aircraft to exercise the utmost caution and to refrain
from all interference with British merchant ships except in
the circumstances relating to the verification of vessels
flying the British flag which were explained in a
memorandum communicated to the Vice-Minister for Foreign
Affairs on the 11th September, 1937.
5.