(F.7663/4/10.)
NO DISTRIBUTION.
Cypher telegram to Sir R. Craigie (Tokyo).
Foreign Office. 5th August, 1938. 10.30 p.m.
No. 542.
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Hongkong despatch to you No. 33 [of the 24th June: claims of British subjects as result of sinking of Hongkong
fishing junks].
His
You should now inform the Japanese Government that His Majesty's Government who have given the matter further very full consideration cannot accept the version of the facts given in the Japanese memorandum of the 18th April last, summarised in your telegram No. 497 [of the 20th April], as disposing of the findings of the Hongkong Commission of Enquiry. You should go on to say that having regard to the
nature of the weapons on board the junks in question, Majesty's Government consider that it is in the highest degree improbable that the fishermen would have been so foolhardy as to attack a Japanese war vessel. It would appear that a serious breach of the fundamental rules of war and of the rules for the conduct of operations against merchant ships has been committed. His Majesty's Government must therefore maintain their protest and ask for disciplinary action to be taken against the Commander of the war vessel
concerned.
You should at the same time present a claim for com- pensation based on enclosure 1 in the Hongkong despatch referred to.
Meanwhile I shall be grateful if you will let me know what you now think regarding publication.
Repeated to Shanghai No. 688 and Hongkong.
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