Extract from a Confidential letter from Mr. Gage to
X
Mr. Eden.
Dated 8th September, 1937.
angel.
Oyu
X
58518/37.5.
X
X
X
1/!
27. As soon as the Japanese realised that hostilities
were likely to be prolonged, they began casting about for
some means of cutting off China's supply of arms, for which
she is almost entirely dependent on imports from abroad.
The Chinese Government, who were only too well aware of their
vulnerability in this respect, had, almost immediately after
the trouble began, diverted all shipments to Hong Kong whence
they could carry them by water, or, if the Japanese blockaded
the river, by rail, to Canton and thence northward by the
Canton-Hankow Railway. For this the co-operation of the
Hong Kong authorities was vital; indeed, it may be said that
it was for the Chinese a matter of life or death that this
route should be kept open and that they should be able to
continue to use Hong Kong as an entrepôt.
28.
The Japanese made their first move in the matter of
cutting off China's supplies of war materials on the 25th
August when the admiral commanding the Third Fleet announced
that navigation on the lower Yangtse and along the Central
China coast from (and including) Shanghai to a point south of
Swatow was closed to Chinese shipping as from 6 P.M. on that
date. In a statement to the press Dr. Jimpei Shinobu, a
professor of international law acting as legal adviser to the
Japanese Third Fleet, described this as a "pacific" or
it peace-time" blockade for which he said there was precedent
in the Greek war of 1827, a precedent which had been recognised
by international jurists in 1887, and followed by the Allies
when they had banned native shipping along the coast of
Montenegro in 1917.
Chinese vessels operating in the
forbidden
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.