2.
175
If therefore my suggestion about the removal of arrested
persons to Hongkong is not accepted and expulsion is resorted to
I think it should be reserved for the future rather than applied
in present case. I mean that persons concerned should be given
another chance of good behaviour and released with warning that
any future offences will lead to swift and drastic measures.
There can be no doubt about what will be the fate of those
who fall into the hands of Japanese and I feel strongly that if
we proceeded with expulsion now we would be sending to their
death a number of people who in fact do not deserve it.
I am concerned at terms of first part of first paragraph of
Tientsin telegram No. 173 of April 28th to you. That is precisely
what I had in mind when I suggested in my telegram No. 16 Tour
Series of April 17th that if we went too far to meet them Japanese
would end by establishing a kind of terror in the Concession.
That is what Chinese too are afraid of. Japanese were threatening
to try the same methods in Shanghai and we were taking steps to
resist them. I think therefore that any information received
from Japanese should be treated with greatest circumspection and
not acted on unless our authorities are entirely satisfied that it
is bona fide.
May I revert to my suggestion that we should insist on removal
from Tientsin of seven original internees even at the risk of
displeasing Japanese whose object in desiring their retention in Tientsin can be nothing but hope that sooner or later they will get hold of them. Inasmuch as Japanese will get their pound of flesh in the form of would-be bomb-throwers they may prove to be more amenable on this point.