CO129-579-10 Sino-Japanese War- quarterly reports of Japanese activities 25-1-1939 - 1-2-1940 — Page 17

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SPECIAL BRANCH (JAPANESE SECTION).

MONTHLY REPORT, DECEMBER. 1939.

17

Katsuo OKAZAKI, the Japanese Consul-General at Hong Kong, went up to Canton with one of his chancellors early in the month when the distinguished officials were

there, and later his new Vice-Consul, Minoru YATAGAI, ex Foreign Office Chinese Culture Department, and

assistant of the Special Service Chief, Chonosuke

TONEGI, left for Shanghai. The Consulate English/

Cantonese interpreter, Shoshichi FUJITA, has been promoted chancellor, and the commercial counsellor,

Kwarokuro ENDO, has been transferred to Canton as

commercial correspondent of the Department of Commerce

and Industry.

Japanese troops have withdrawn from the border vicinity and there are signs of concentrating on furthering commerce in Canton and the Japanese Railway Corps of the South China Expeditionary Force are advertising for ex employees of the Canton-Kowloon Railway to report for reinstatement, and Tadasu HIROAKA, the suspect ink merchant, property owner and financier in Hong Kong, is reported to be interested in financing several new Japanese concerns in Canton and is now spending more time there than in Hong Kong. Japanese hotel keepers and shop-keepers in Hong Kong have been given business concessions in Canton, but several state they are finding business difficult owing to conflicting regulations made by the Japanese military and civil authorities. It is said that Canton is peaceful in Japanese occupation and the present Japanese civil population numbers 8000 adults. A Japanese source reports that a large number of Japanese military officers