CO129-563-18 Sino-Japanese War- stopping of British shipping by Japanese 11-9-1937 - 29-12-1937 — Page 157

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6812 (F-6654/130/10).

To JAPAN.

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Code telegram to Sir R. Craigie (Tokyo).

Foreign Office, 23rd September, 1937.

5.30 p.m.

No. 340. (R).

Your telegram No. 407 [of the 18th September; blockade of

the China coast].

lines.

Please address a Note to Japanese Government on the following

The statement which they have issued is difficult to follow.

If transfer of a vessel to British registry in accordance with

English law has not taken place, the vessel in question does not

fulfill the conditions entitling her to fly the British flag;

and this fact will be duly revealed in suspicious cases by a

visit for flag verification purposes.

If valid transfer has

taken place, and the vessel is entitled to fly the British flag,

the fact that transfer has taken place since the 25th August is

completely irrelevant. It is, however, presumed that Japanese

do not mean to imply that they will not recognise valid transfers subsequent to the 25th August; such attitude would be inadmissible

and His Majesty's Government could not acquiesce in it. Nor can

legal validity of any transfer under English law be determined by

any but British authorities.

At the same time you may inform the Japanese Government orally

that, in point of fact, measures have been taken which will ensure

that any applications for transfers which may be made will be

scrutinised with the utmose care with a view to making certain

that all the necessary conditions are fulfilled.

Addressed to Tokyo No. 340; repeated to Nanking No. 319

and Commander-in-Chief No. -.