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Sir R. Craigie (Tokyo),
31st January 1940.
Do
5.12 p.m.
31st January 1940.
R.
3.10 p.m.
31st January 1940.
No. 180. (R).
353
Your telegram No. 60.
In the course of yesterday's interview, I made representations
on this case as instructed and left the memorandum with His Excellency. The Minister for Foreign Affairs promised to make an enquiry but argued
(a) that reports in regard to the violation of territorial
waters in Hongkong had, he believed, been greatly exaggerated,
largely owing to the unreliability of Chinese witnesses, and
(b) that a very large amount of smuggling of arms and munitions
was taking place which it was essential for the Japanese Navy to
control by action outside territorial waters.
I said that in the great majority of cases the junks were certainly engaged in peaceful fishing and that this constant inter- ference with this important source of the colony's food supply was
creating much resentment not only in the colony but in Great Britain.
If the Japanese authorities really had reason to believe that arms
and ammunition were being smuggled on a large scale, surely the right
course was to make diplomatic representations rather than to permit
the continuance of high handed action by local Naval authorities.
Repeated to Commander-in-Chief telegram No. 60.
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