CO129-571-9 Sino-Japanese War- Canton-Kowloon railway 25-3-1938 - 28-2-1939 — Page 149

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boundary their next step might be to ask us to rail

supplies through the port of Hong Kong to some point

at which their rolling stock (captured from the Chinese)

could take it over. For us to attempt to do so would

inevitably create a port and a railway strike here: on

the other hand, could we, as neutrals refuse for Japan

what we have done for China?

The best course, at first at any rate, seems to

me to be as follows. Were such an invasion to take place

the British Military Authorities will, in any case, at

once move troops to the frontier. They might well request

the Civil Government not to run a service from Kowloon

further than some specified point on the Kowloon-Cant on

Railway on the ground that it would be (a) inconvenient

to them and (b) unsafe to do so: the point might well

be the siding which supplies the military camp near where

the railway crosses into South China. The Civil Government

would concur and the Military Authorities would thereafter

turn a deaf ear to any arguments, originating from Japanese

sources, that they should waive their objections.

Incidentally this would be much like the game which the

Japanese are playing against foreign ships on the Yangtse.

se.