PRIMA FACIE CASE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 37, 12 August 1939, Page 9

PRIMA FACIE CASE

LEGAL FINDING

JAPAN AND CHINA INFORMED

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received August 12, 10.10 a.m.)

RUGBY, August 11

Before the House of Commons rose, the Prime Minister intimated that the Japanese had submitted evidence in support of the charges against the four Chinese held by the British municipal police at Tientsin following the murder of the manager of the Federal Reserve Bank and the Superintendent of Customs. This evidence was communicated confidentially during the Anglo-Japanese discussions in Tokio, and, as Mr. Chamberlain stated, it was receiving careful examination. Mr. Chamberlain added that the men could not be handed over unless the evidence showed that there was a prima facie case against them, but that if such evidence were forthcoming there would be no alternative but to hand them over to the Chinese District Court.

With the completion of this additional evidence, the conclusion reached is that it does in fact constitute a prima facie case against the four accused— two on a charge of murder and the other two on a charge of membership of an illegal organisation. Thus the British authorities, as stated by Mr. Chamberlain, are obliged to hand over the men in accordance with regular procedure to the local Chinese Court.

The position of the British Municipal Council in continuing to hold Ssu Chingwu, who was arrested last September on information supplied by the Chinese military authorities and since has been under detention by the British municipal police at Tientsin, is untenable, and he will be handed over to the de facto Chinese authorities for internment, under reasonable safeguards, by which the British Consul-General will be permitted to satisfy himself that the prisoner is being" properly treated.

The British Ambassador to Japan, Sir Robert Craigie, has informed Japan of the conclusion reached by the legal authorities in Britain, and has notified them that the British municipal police at Tientsin are now prepared to execute the warrant of the local Chinese District Court. A similar notification is being imde- to the Chinese Government.

The case of the four accused has throughout constituted a' separate question which has been considered purely cm its judicial merits and entirely apart from the examination in the Tokio talks of other local issues. Nor, has the delay in reaching the decision on this isolated question had any connection with the temporary suspension of these conversations. Their early resumption is now anticipated, as within the past 48 hours fresh detailed instructions have been sent to Sir Robert Craigie.