CO129-579-12 Sino-Japanese War- bombing of railway line within leased territories (Shamchun Incident) 21-2-1939 - 17-3-1939 — Page 6

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territory.

Casualties from this bombing were

one Sikh policeman and six Chinese refugees;

number of wounded is not known.

the

One of these machines then circled again

and machine-gunned the British railway station

killing two Chinese. The other machine dived over

the Lowu camp and attacked a stationary train one

mile inside British territory, dropping two bombs

one of which caused considerable damage to the train.

These attacks were unexcusable since the

frontier at the Sham Chun River was clearly defined and the Japanese had already promised to note it on their maps.

The same day Col. Ishino in Hong Kong asked for an interview with Brigadier Grasett to

express regret on behalf of the Japanese army for

the incident. But since it was thought the

Japanese might maintain that the incident was closed

by this apology, Brigadier Grasett refused to see Col. Ishino, with the Governor's concurrence.

By this time Sir R. Craigie had made in

Tokio a preliminary protest. About the same time

the Japanese Consul-General in Canton made to

Mr. Blunt the astonishing and absurd statement that

"Japanese military headquarters feared a bomb had been dropped within British territory near Shan Chun and

in the neighbourhood of a locomotive. If this should

prove so, the Japanese military authorities desired

to express deep regret at this error and a wish to

pay compensation for any damage". The Governor's

reply to this suggestion is registered at (10).

Later Mr. Okazaki telephoned to Mr. Blunt and put forward the proposals contained in (9).

The