NO DISTRIBUTION
THE
De cypher. Mr. Jamieson Tientsin),
13th May 1939.
D.
(By Wireless)
13th May 1939.
R. 6.00 p.m.
13th May 1939.
No. 180.
IMPORTANT
169
4
My telegram No. 179.
Copy of telegram sent yesterday by the Associated British Committee to China Association, London, for transmission to you has
been sent to me.
2. "Present case" mentioned in the first paragraph of that com- munication refers to four men who were arrested as suspects in Cheng's assassination on information received from the Japanese to whom confession was made by two of them that they took part in the assassination. These two persons subsequently reconstructed the crime on the spot and made similar admission under no apparent duress to superintending Consul and to the Chief of the British Municipal Police. The men on their return to British Municipal Council, showed no signs of torture but complained that they had been sub- jected to the water torture and declared in spite of the previous
British Municipal admission, that the confessions made were false.
police gained the impression that the men had in fact been water- tortured and that the confessions were false. At this stage Madame Chiang Kai-shek intervened, through His Majesty's Ambassador, from whom I am now asking for permission to hand the men over for trial by District Court on the production of a proper warrant.
3. Confession is Oriental method of obtaining conviction but quite apart from the value of the confessions made to the Japanese (and subsequently reiterated) there is no doubt that the men are members of a terrorist gang and I consider they should be handed over for trial. Japanese were asked to co-operate in
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