CO129-563-11 Sino-Japanese War- political situation 17-8-1937 - 8-3-1938 — Page 26

T

CODY.

TRANSLATION

sir,

26th August 1937.

25

No. 145

Confidential

From M.F. A.

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of

your Note No. 120 of 21st August in which you draw my

attention to the fact that Japanese military operations

in Shanghai are endangering the lives and property of

British subjects and in which you urge that, as Japan is

mainly responsible for this state of affairs, she should

promptly take the necessary steps to end it.

You asked me to realise fully the extent to which

the Japanese military operations in Shanghai were

endangering British interests and maintained that the

Japanese military operations were out of proportion to

the killing of two members of the landing party, which

gave rise to the incident, and were excessive. I wish,

however, to draw your careful attention to the fact that

actually it is not the Japanese army which is endangering

British interests in Shanghai but the illegal Chinese

attack upon the settlement, and that the recent Japanese

military operations were not in retaliation for the killing

of two members of the landing party, but consisted merely

in defensive measures, for the purpose of self-defence,

on the part of the small Japanese squadron and landing

party in order to protect the 30,000 Japanese residents

from attack by Chinese forces, which disregarding the

armistice agreement of May, 1932, had invaded the neighbourhood

of the Japanese residential district.

You stated further that, according to information

which had reached His Majesty's Government, the Chinese

reinforcements were carried out as the result of Japan having

J.L. Dodds Esquire,

H. B. H. Chargé d'Affaires,

TOKYO.

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