CO129-578-12 Sino-Japanese War- attacks on shipping 10-1-1939 - 17-11-1939 — Page 104

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to the west of Lingting Island, sighted a number of junks to the east of the island and inspected them. The inspec- tion took place at a point 220 25' 48" north latitude and 115° 51' east longitude "and thus clearly outside British territorial waters". Each of the four junks was said by the Japanese Government to have been armed and to have put

The crews up a vigorous resistance to the patrol vessel.

The

of the junks were transferred to a fishing vessel and the petrol with which the junks were loaded was burnt. Japanese naval vessel did not enter British territorial waters in pursuit of the junks in question.

Careful research was made by the British authori- ties into the question in the light of the apparent discre- pancy between the two accounts, and the conclusions were summed up in a note addressed to the Japanese Government on the 27th April. The principal conclusion arrived at was that the four junks described in the Japanese Government's note were not the same as the four junks fired on and seized in British territorial waters on the same day. Briefly, the

reason for this conclusion was as follows. The officer in

the British launch which eventually extinguished the fire on three of the junks mentioned in the British note, noticed a burning junk inside Chinese waters beyond Lingting Island, 1.e. where he would expect to see flames from a junk which

bad been set on fire in the circumstances stated in the

Japanese note. (The British police officer had incidentally received reports of further junks being seized by a Japanese trawler at the time and place stated in the Japanese note).

oreover, the junka referred to in the British note were not loaded with petrol and kerosene as were the junks described in the Japanese note. The British evidence accordingly corroborated the Japanese evidence to the effect that some

/junks