CO129-563-18 Sino-Japanese War- stopping of British shipping by Japanese 11-9-1937 - 29-12-1937 — Page 123

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government, and should be returned to the Foreign Office if not required for official use.]

5.2.

124

(F 7764/130/10).

TO JAPAN

Cypher telegram to Sir R. Craigie (Tokyo).

Foreign Office. 12th October, 1937.

No. 387.

7.30 p.m.

Your telegram No. 384 [of the 12th October: blockade

of the China coast].

I hope shortly to reply to your telegrams Nos.498 and

499, but I see no reason why you should delay acting on my

telegram No. 384. There is no question of an agreement with

the Japanese Government. In my telegram No. 297 I set out the

conditions upon which His Majesty's Government would permit Japanese warships (in the absence of British warships) to board vessels flying the British flag in order to verify their right

to that flag. Unless those conditions are complied with,

Japanese warships have no right to visit British ships. But it

is clear from your telegrams Nos. 415 and 471 that the Japane se Government have expressly agreed to notification. The question of the channel of communication is irrelevant to the principle, but even here His Majesty's Government have only indicated that they consider that the duplication of notification suggested by the Japanese Government is superfluous (see my telegram No. 345). The matters raised in your telegrams Nos. 498 and 499, in regard to which you should for the present be guided by paragraph 2 of my telegram No. 345, are equally irrelevant to the issue.

2. If you consider that the Japanese Government are under any misapprehension on these points you should make the position plain to them when acting on my telegram No. 384.

Addressed to Tokyo No. 387, repeated to Nanking No. 373, Commander-in-Chief unnumbered and Hongkong unnumbered.