CO129-580-1 Sino-Japanese War- handing over of suspected terrorists to Japanese authorities 1-5-1939 - 24-8-1939 — Page 123

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government, and should be 23

returned to the Foreign Office if not required for official use.]

(5316/1/10)

To: JAPAN.

Code telegram to Sir R. Craigie (Tokyo)

Foreign Office, 5th June, 1939.

No. 263 (R)

XXXXX

1.15 p.m.

37

IMMEDIATE

34 My telegram to Tientsin No. 44 [of June 5th

offenders in Tientsin Concession].*

political

You should seek an immediate interview with the Minister

for Foreign Affairs and inform him of the instructions I have

given to the Consul-General at Tientsin,

You should point out that we are going a long way to

meet the Japanese wishes in this matter, but that it would be utterly repugnant to the Eritish sense of justice to hand over to execution, men against whom we have received no evidence of the

crimes alleged.

You should inform the Minister for Foreign Affairs that

our authorities in Tientsin have received threats that unless the

Japanese demands are met by June 7th forcible action of some

kind will be taken against the Concession, and you should urge

him to reflect whether the attainment of a local objective by

such means is worth the serious repercussion in a wider political

sphere that it will cause.

The Military Attaché should also speak strongly to the

military authorities on the same lines, and ask for immediate

instructions to Tientsin to prevent any such outcome.

Repeated to Shanghai No. 433 and Tientsin No. 45