CO129-441 - Governor Sir May - 1917 [1-3] — Page 456

CONFIDENTIAL.

2.

Government Hor

Just.

28th March1917.

450

sir,

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt

of your Cypher telegram of the 21st inst:, and to inform

you that I have carefully noted the instructions

contained therein.

The exception taken by the Japanese Embassy,

to my remarks nearly a year after they were made, causes

me no little surprise. The reference to the Philippine

Islands had its foundation, of course, in the then much

discussed subject of the grant of independence to those

Islands; and in any case I fail to see how the mention

of those Islands could possibly give umbrage to the

Japanese Covernment, any more than to various other

Governments. There remains, therefore, only the reference

to "heathen lands" to which exception might be taken.

I recognise that the substitution of the word "non-

christian" for the word "heathen" might have been more

happy. At the same time, I did not use the word "heathen"

in any sence of disparagement. It was not an unusual

word to use at a Missionary Keeting.

The Right Honbl.

3. The exception

Walter Long, K.P.,&c.,&c.,&c.

H.M's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies.