is Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government, and should be returned
to the Foreign Office if not required for official use.
34
126
From
CHINA.
Decypher.
Mr. Jamieson (Tientsin),
2nd June, 1939.
D.
W/T
2nd June, 1939.
R. 8.00 p.m.
2nd June, 1939,
No. 198.
IMPORTA T.
(25)
(33)
Your telegram No. 419 to Shanghai which has crossed my
telegrams Nos. 193, 196 and 197 to which reference is invited.
ith regard to evidence against the four men, I have nothing to add to what I have said in my previous telegrams, other than to observe (a) that in any case "men's activities were directed towards terrorist acts"; and that it is not only Cheng murder with which these men are charged: (b) that Mr. Kent (legal adviser to Council, a barrister of forty years standing and leading British citizen) and I are satisfied that there is
sufficient evidence to warrant handing over all four men to Tientsin district court, the procurator of which holds preliminary examination and decides whether the case should o to trial and
on what charges. In this connexion I should like to make it
clear that we have never claimed that te are in any way entitled to consider ourselves as exercising functions of a magistrate's court in regard to committing persons for trial.
2.
There is no doubt whatever that Japanese authorities
will be only satisfied with unconditional handing over of the four men to Tientsin district court on which time limit has been
placed. It seems inevitable that the men will have to be handed over if we are to avoid natural consequences of our failure
to do so.
3.