CO129-567-4 Traffic of arms to China and Japanese air-raids on Kowloon-Canton railway 3-1-1938 - 3-5-1938 — Page 51

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to the Foreign Office if not required for official use.

51

From

GERMANY.

Telegram (en clair) from Sir N. Henderson (Berlin).

D. By Bag.

R.

May 5th 1938.

May 5th 1933.

May 6th 1938.

No.230.

Saving.

A

Your telegram No.23 Saving of April 6th.

I have asked Consular Officers at Hamburg and Bremen to

furnish a report but I have not yet received a reply. The

delay is doubtless due to the extreme difficulty of getting

reliable information on such questions in Germany today.

Meanwhile I can say that the information available here does

not confirm the statement of the Japanese General Staff. The

Military Attaché for instance was told a few days ago by a

director of Rheinmetall that his firm had been doing good

business with the Chinese and were at present engaged on big

contracts for them.

I am disposed to think that if the Germans had really

decided to sacrifice their arms trade with China on the altar

of Japanese friendship the fact would by now have been public

property. The secrecy still enveloping the German arms trade

with China indicates rather that Germany has no intention of

putting a stop to it.