CO129-571-15 Sino-Japanese War- manufacture and import of aircraft to China 18-1-1938 - 5-1-1939 — Page 134

In any further communication

this subject, please quote

No. F 4832/3284/10

and address--

not to any person by name

but to-

"The Under-Secretary of State,"

Foreign Office,

London, S.W.1.

FOREIGN Office.

S.W.1.

24th June, 1938.

88

134-

49

Sir,

With reference to Colonial Office letter No.

53846/38 Secret of the 6th May, regarding the proposed

erection of a factory for the manufacture of commercial

and military aeroplanes at Hong Kong, I am directed by

Viscount Halifax to inform you that as a result of further

research he is unable to discover the existence of a

Cabinet decision that completed aircraft should not be

exported from British territory to China and Japan during

the present hostilities.

2. The question was examined by the Cabinet Committee

on British shipping in the Far East. They took into

consideration the fact that although the present hostilities

do not constitute a war in the legal sense, it was considered

desirable for Hong Kong to act as if there were in fact a

war and to assume the duties and obligations of a neutral.

It was considered necessary for Hong Kong to act in this

way, not for any legal reasons but for political and

geographical reasons, i.e. if Hong Kong were to act as a

base of supply for China this would arouse the hostility

of the Japanese; they might resort to a number of measures

and it was pointed out on high authority that an assembly

plant for aeroplanes might be bombed by the Japanese.

The Under Secretary of State,

Colonial Office.

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