CO129-579-11-1 Sino-Japanese War- seizure of unauthorized wireless transmitting apparatus 13-2-1939 - 7-5-1940 — Page 40

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Kwan and others, made by Mr. Abbott, Assistant Crown

Solicitor, to the Postmaster General.

2.

The revelations disclosed in the course of

this episode fall into three categories.

In the first

place there is the use of an illicit wireless telegraphy

As Messrs. Cable and wireless Limited

transmitter.

are capable of dispatching all the telegraphic messages

which the Hong Kong agencies of the Chinese Goverment

may wish sent to Chungking, it is to be presumed that

the principal objects to be served were economy (at

the expense of the Hong Kong Government and the Company)

and convenience. As you are aware, since the beginning

of the current Sino-Japanese hostilities but prior to

the outbreak of war between Great Britain and Germany,

this Government has on various occasions been obliged

to take measures to prevent the use of such transmitting

sets by agents of the Chinese Government, partly in

observance of its contract with Messrs. Cable and

Wireless Limited and partly in order to preserve its

neutrality. On six occasions illicit installations

have been detected, four cases being brought to

court, and the magistrate in his judgment upon the last case of the kind prior to the Nathan Road incident stated publicly that severe penalties would

be inflicted should another such offence be

discovered. That these breaches of the law were

not treated more drastically during this period was principally due, I think, to an underlying sympathy with the Republic of China in its difficult

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