FAR EAST TENSION

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 June 1936, Page 7

FAR EAST TENSION

BRITISH TROOP MOVEMENTS MR. EDEN’S STATEMENT [BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS] RUGBY, June 15. Reference was made in the Commons to the death of a Japanese officer at Pekin on May 26, in connection, with which allegations have appeared incriminating soldiers belonging to the British Embassy Guard.. Recalling that a preliminary investigation. set on foot by the British

Embassy as soon as the reports appeared in the local Press, had established there had been no British troops, either on pass, or on duty outside their own quarters, at the time when the incident is stated to have

taken place, the Foreign Secretary stated that following receipt of the official notification from the Japanese Embassy, a British Military Court of Enquiry was set up in June. Meanwhile. when permission was’ requested

or the body of the murdered man to ie examined by the doctor to His Ma-

jesty’s Embassy, he was informed it had been cremated on May 29. that is on the day before the Japanese Note was handed in. The Court of Enquiry effectively confirmed the result of the preliminary investigations. The Japanese Embassy, however, subsequently submitted the testimonies of a number of witnesses of Japanese or Korean extraction. in support of the original Japanese allegations. These witnesses assert that they have identified three members of the British Embassy guard as being involved in certain disturbances, which took place on the night of the murder. Investigations are proceeding. and the witnesses mentioned are to be examined by the Court of Enquiry. Questioned about troop and naval movements in the Far East, the Foreign Secretary replied that routine measures for the protection of centres of British interest in the area involved in the present disturbed situation, had been taken. These measures consist in the holding in readiness at Hong Kong of a battalion for the possible reinforcement of the British garrison at Shanghai, and in the formulation of plans for dispatch .in an emergency of units of the China Fleet to the port affected.

Mr. Eden would not answer a ques-

tion based on the hypothesis of SinoJapanese hostilities, except to say that every effort would be made to keep the international settlement at Shanghai, free of all hostilities.