SEFL: 31 Dir: 7/12
14/12.
In any further communication
on this subject, please quote
No.
F 10966/14/10.
and address→→
not to any person by name
but to-
The Under-Secretary of State,"
Foreign Office,
London, S.W.1.
FOREIGN Office.
S.W.1.
4th December, 1939.
DL39
21
and (63)
36/
39.
Sir,
I am directed by Viscount Halifax to refer to
Colonial Office letter No. 53838/11/39 of the 11th October
enclosing a copy of a despatch from the Governor of Hong
Kong to His Majesty's Ambassador at Tokyo, on the subject
of a mishap to the Douglas Steamship Company's S.S. "Haitan"
which struck a mine near Shacheng on the 25th July last.
Mr. Secretary MacDonald will be aware that Sir
Robert Craigie in his telegram No.1356 of the 9th October
(see Foreign Office letter to the Colonial Office No.
2.
F 10889/14/10 of the 12th October), requested instructions
on whether a claim should be presented to the Japanese
Government in respect of the damage done to the S.S. "Haitan".
3. Lord Halifax notes that the Attorney-General, in
his minute of 18th August enclosed in the Governor's despatch
under reference, states that there is no evidence that the
mine was not Chinese. In view of the consequent impossibility
of establishing that the mine was Japanese Lord Halifax has
reached the conclusion that no claim can properly be presented
to the Japanese Government. Before instructing Sir Robert
Craigie in this sense, however, he would be glad to know whether
Mr. MacDonald concurs in his doing so.
The Under-Secretary of State,
Colonial Office.
I am,
Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
Johley Clarke
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.