CO129-571-9 Sino-Japanese War- Canton-Kowloon railway 25-3-1938 - 28-2-1939 — Page 113

occur to them that to do so would be likely to court

a refusal from us. They had now overcome Chinese

opposition in the Canton area and were in process of

occupying Canton itself; coastal steamers up to about

Wharves a 3,000 tons could take cargo up to the Canton walls

Chese river facilities might very well be sufficient

for the Japanese. It will, in any case, take them

some time to repair the Hong Kong-Canton railway in

view of the demolitions carried out by the retreating

Chinese. If, however, a request were made for

facilities on the railway in due course, it was the

Foreign Office view that the circumstances of local

necessity in Hong Kong constituted sufficient grounds

for refusal.

Mr. Fitzmaurice added that on strictly

legal considerations, we were under no obligation to

concede to such a Japanese request. There was, in

fact, no recognised state of war in China, but we had

in the past conducted ourselves, and instructed the

Government of Hong Kong to conduct itself similarly,

on the basis that there was a de facto state of war

and that we should follow as a general guide the

proper international procedure for a neutral under

the Hague Rules. On that basis there would still

appear unlikely to be a situation in which we should

Matendo

Japanese

be under an obligation to rail war supplies into

for the Jupe force Kong. We were correct

Chinese territory from Hong Kong.

in permitting the use of the railway for consignments

of munitions from third party countries to China,

but in the event of a Japanese demand, the circum-

stances were likely to be quite different, namely,

that

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