DETAILS OF THE NOTE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 231, 30 August 1937, Page 7

DETAILS OF THE NOTE.

REDRESS SOUGHT

PLEAS IRRELEVANT.

Received August 30, 11.45 a.m. LONDON. Aug. 29,

Detailing the facts of the attack on the Ambassador, the British Note to Japan says: “The party* occupied two black saloon cars obviously‘of a private character and each flying a Union Jack measuring eight by twelve inches.

“When 40 miles from Shanghai the cars were attacked by machine-gun fire from Japanese aeroplanes, one of which dived from the off-side of the cars. This was followed by a bomb attack from a second Japanese aeroplane at a height of 200 feet. “The Ambassador was hit by a nick-el-steel bullet found embedded in the car; it had penetrated the side of the abdomen and grazed the spine.” After recording the protest and requesting redress, the Note continues: “Although non-combatnnts, including foreigners, resident in the country concerned must accept the inevitable risk of injury resulting indirectly from the normal conduct of hostilities, it is one of the oldest established rules of international law that a direct or deliberate attack on non-combatants is absolutely prohibited, whether inside or outside the area in which the hostilities are taking place. “Aircraft are in no wav exempt from this rule, nor can the plea of accident be accepted where the facts show, at the best, negligent and complete disregard of the sanctity of civilian life. The facts in the present case make it clear that this was not an accident resulting from normal hostile operation and it should have been obvious to aircraft that they were dealing with non-combatants.”

The Note, after referring to the flags proceeds:— “The foreign, even the diplomatic, status of the occupants in the car is also irrelevant.” After the reference to the illegality of the incident, the Note continues: “The Ambassador was travelling in' a locality where there were no Chinese troops nor actual hostilities in progress.

“His Majesty’s Government feel they must take this opportunity to emphasise the wider significance of this event. It is an outstanding example of the results that can ' be expected from indiscriminate air attack. Such events are insepararable from the practice—as illegal as it is inhuman—of failing to draw a clear distinction between combatr ants and non-combatants in the conduct of hostilities which international law, no less than the conscience ol mankind, has always enjoined.”

ALL DETAILS CHECKED,

WOUNDTNG OF AMBASSADOR

Received August 30, 12.10 p.m. LONDON, Aug. 29. The British Note was not telegraphed to the Charge d’Affaires at Tokio until everyi detail of shooting had been carefully checked and recheeked by Embassy officials in China who telegraphed the report to London. Mr Neville Chamberlain and Air Anthony Eden were in close telephone contact with the Foreign Office during the drafting of the Note At the week-end the commander in chief of the China station, Sir Charles Little, telegraphed the Admiralty stigmatising as a complete fabrication the statement attributed to him by the Japanese News Agency that the Ambassador’s imprudence brought on the shooting.