CO129-570-10 Sino-Japanese War- Japanese seizure of the S.S. ASIAN- claims 15-2-1938 - 12-12-1938 — Page 13

Copy

(F 2159/281/10)

Copy to: Foreign Office No.47.

No. 5 (8/72J/39)

British Embassy,

Tokyo.

27 the January, 1939.

13

Sir,

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of

Your Excellency's despatch No.59 (K:MT) of the 10th

November last in regard to the case of the s.s. "Asian".

2. On the 11th January Mr. Cunningham, Counsellor of

this Embassy, called upon the Director of the East Asia

Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to discuss

this case with a view to its reconsideration by the

He pointed out to Mr.

Japanese authorities concerned.

Kurihara that at the time of the detention of the vessel

by the Japanese authorities there were on board all the

papers which it was customary for British vessels to carry,

that these were sufficient to establish the fact that she

was a British ship, and that although enquiries could have been

made quickly at Hongkong the vessel had been detained for

nearly two weeks and had further suffered damage by being

driven in a heavy sea. In addition to using these arguments,

which together with other relevant considerations were

set out in my Note to the Japanese Minister for Foreign

Affairs No. 40 of the 9th September last (see my despatch

No.54 of that date), Mr. Cunningham reminded Mr. Kurihara

that in their Note No. 182 of the 4th October, 1937 (copy

of which is enclosed herewith), the Japanese Government

had agreed to our contention that it was for the British

authorities to satisfy themselves of the validity of the

transfer/

His Excellency

Sir Geoffry Northcote, K.C.M.G.,

Governor and Commander-in-Chief,

Victoria. Hongkong.