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This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government, and should be returne
to the Foreign Office if not required for official use.]
From JAPAN.
Decypher. Sir R. Craigie (Tokyo).
2nd November, 1957.
D.
8.20 p.m.
2nd liovember, 1987.
R.
3.15 p.m.
2nd November, 1987.
No. 628.
My telegram 610.
Closing the French frontier leaves Hongkong and Macao as the only neutral channels for importation from overseas of munitions into China, Owing to bad communications, traffic via Macao is understood to be insignificant so that Hongkong remains (Quantities of munitions as the one effective neutral channel. carried direct to Chinese ports in neutral ships are probably inconsiderable).
A great deal of anti-British feeling in Japanese navy and of press agitation is based on this fact irrespective of quantity of munitions passing through Hongkong or of country of origin. General effect is to strengthen demand of the navy and public for stronger measures of control. [ grp, omtd. ]s demanded include
a declaration of war on China, institution of full blockade and
French possibly establishment of a base in the south of China. action has diminished necessity for the latter but as long as traffic continues through Hongkong there is always possibility of some landing on main land for the purpose of intercepting this traffic on Chinese territory. According to a reliable report Japanese naval authorities are actively studying question of blockade and one section at least holds, on analogy of what we did during the war, that doctrine of "continuous voyage" could be applied to contraband goods destined for Hongkong.
There
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