CO129-580-1 Sino-Japanese War- handing over of suspected terrorists to Japanese authorities 1-5-1939 - 24-8-1939 — Page 71

2.

기

5/

of the statement made in my telegram No.180.

3. The following additional information will I hope make it clear to Your Lordship. The four men were handed over to the Japanese under a personal guarantee of my Japanese colleague that they would not be maltreated in any way and that they would be returned within 5 days. On the evening of the day before the expiration of the period the Japanese authorities stated that two of the men had confessed to complicity in the Cheng assassination and that they desired a reconstruction on the spot in the presence of British municipal police officials and the Super-Consul ( so that they could be satisfied as to the confession).

This

reconstruction duly took place, the two men at the time being in the custody of Japanese gendarmerie. The state of mind of the Super-Consul and of the chief of the British police at the time

was as follows:-

There was evidence that the men were members of terrorist gang; (b) undertaking had been given that there would be no maltreatment; (c) two of the men only had confessed, which in itself gave credence to the belief that there had in fact been no maltreatment. Reconstruction of the crime was gone through, but Super-Consul took the precaution of putting some direct questions to the two accused.

The answers given which from the

manner in which they were made gave the impression of truth,

directly implicated these two men.

Subsequently these two men

were taken away and in the afterno.n all four men were returned

It was

to the British police station within the time limit. after their return to the British police station that they stated

that