CO129-585-4 Sino-Japanese conflict- Japanese air raids on China 26-1-1940 - 5-7-1940 — Page 10

No. 105

10

COPY OF TRANSLATION from Minister for Foreign Affairs

25th June, 1940.

Your Excellency,

I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of Your Excellency's Note No. 104 of the 20th May last informing me that a balance of 3,934.43 dollars remains of the sum of 20,000 dollars paid by the Imperial Government in compensation for the incident which occurred in the neighbourhood of Sham Chun on the 21st February, 1939, and enquiring whether the Imperial Government would be in any way opposed to the subtraction from this balance of a sum of 1,450 dollars in compensation for damages in respect of British subjects killed or injured by gunfire into Hong Kong territory by the Imperial forces in Sham Chun and the district on the border of the New Territories of Hong Kong on the 26th November, 1938.

Even though, as Your Excellency states, British subjects were killed or injured owing to the military operations of the Imperial forces near the border of the British Leased Territory on the 26th November, 1938, this was entirely due to the fact that the Chinese forces against whom the Imperial forces were in action at the time fled into the British Concession and engaged the Japanese forces from there, and the Imperial Government do not therefore consider that they are responsible for compensation for these damages.

With regard to the sum of 20,000 dollars paid by the Imperial Government to the British Government in respect of the incident which occurred near Sham Chun on the 21st February, 1939, however, the Imperial Government have no intention of requesting its return even if a balance should remain after actual payments have been made to the injured persons by the British Government. The Imperial Government have therefore in practice no objection if the British Government pay something from this balance to those injured as the result of the strategic operations of the 26th November, 1938, which are mentioned above.

I avail, etc.

HACHIRO ARITA.

Minister for Foreign Affairs.

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