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FROM JAPAN
Decode and Decypher.
Sir R. Craigie (Tokyo).
6th June, 1939.
D.
12.35 p.m.
7th June, 1939.
R.
9.30 a.m.
7th June, 1939.
No. 520.
IMPORTANT.
"R" begins:
37. Your telegram No. 263.
Minister for Foreign Affairs has been engaged at a Cabinet meeting most of the day but I saw him this afternoon and carried
out your instructions.
Mr. Arita replied that he feared that this decision could
only produce a serious state of affairs in Tientsin where feeling
I stated was running very high. He hoped it was not our last word. that my instructions made it clear that this was the considered decision of His Majesty's Government after careful examination and that I can foresee no modification of it unless it were possible for Japanese authorities to produce convincing evidence of connexion of these men with the crimes alleged. Minister for Foreign Affairs
referred to confession made by accused but I explained to him the
circumstances in which this had occurred and subsequent repudiation.
I then emphazised to Minister for Foreign Affairs the importance of instructions issued to His Majesty's Consul-General as regards
future cases, pointing out that they seemed to me to give Japanese every reasonable assurance and indeed as regards future to meet
their demands in toto. It would be most unfortunate to destroy
this favourable prospect merely on account of four men against whom
no evidence of a particular crime could apparently lie adduced. I
hoped His Excellency would emphasize strongly to local Japanese
authorities....