(F.4808/1/10.)
۹
Intune..
NO DISTRIBUTION.
Cypher telegram to the Governor (Hongkong).
No.
Foreign Office. 22nd May, 1939. 10.30 p.m.
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160
IMPORTANT.
1
Following for Sir A. Clark Kerr.
Your telegram No. 45 Tour [of May 17th offenders in Tientsin Concession].
political
I am not in a position to say that the evidence against the four men accused of complicity in the assassination of Cheng is sufficient to justify us in surrendering them to
certain execution.
On the other hand there are strong objections to sending them for internment in Hongkong.
Apart from the
Japanese reaction, the difficulty is not criticism by the Chinese Government but the fact that the detention of these persons in Hongkong would be of doubtful legality and their friends might take legal proceedings for their release regardless of the Governor's wishes.
The only solution I can suggest, other than expulsion, is that these four men should continue to be detained in Tientsin, and that the Japanese authorities should be allowed to satisfy themselves that the prisoners are kept
incommunicado.
As regards all future case, I think Mr. Jamieson should inform the Japanese that he has been given authority
to
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