CO129-579-5 Sino-Japanese War- Japanese aircraft- Hong Kong air space and other activities 31-1-1939 - 5-8-1939 — Page 125

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the honour to state that, while His Majesty's ships and

aircraft have general orders to do their utmost to avoid

any incident with the Imperial Japanese forces, His

Majesty's Government could not undertake, even if it were

practicable, to give advance notification of the movements

of their naval and air units over so large an area as that

covered by Your Excellency's request. However, as the

Imperial Japanese Government will be aware, the area within

which units at Hong Kong are accustomed to exercise has

already been communicated to the Imperial Japanese

Authorities, together with an indication of the times when

exercises are likely to take place.

4.

As regards merchant ships, His Majesty's

Government feel obliged to insist upon the right of British

vessels to proceed to any point in China, and they are

unable to depart from their previous attitude regarding

notification of the movements of merchant vessels, which,

for the reasons explained in the letter which I had the

honour to address on the 29th October, 1937, to the

Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, they consider to be

impracticable. While they are always ready to make any

practicable contribution towards minimising the risk of

accidents, they must look to the Japanese forces, vessels

and aircraft to exercise the utmost caution and to refrain

from all interference with British merchant ships except in

the circumstances relating to the verification of vessels

flying the British flag which were explained in a

memorandum communicated to the Vice-Minister for Foreign

Affairs on the 11th September, 1937.

5.