I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter of 27th
July last conveying, under instructions from the Japanese
Government, an official report of the Japanese authorities on the
question of the inspection and searching of British nationals at
Tientsin. [1] I note that this report, which I observe was
circulated to the Press on 26th July, refutes the allegation that
the manner of searching undertaken by Japanese authorities at
Tientsin in connection with the blockade of the British Concession
is insulting to British nationals, and further that it
categorically denies that in any case has a person been stripped
of his or her clothing.

In taking note of these declarations, however, I am bound to say
that they conflict plainly with information received by the
Commonwealth Government at the time. Allowing for such inevitable
colouring of the facts as might have been given in some newspaper
reports, I feel that I have no alternative, in view of the
categorical nature of this information and of its source, but to
maintain my opinion that incidents of the kind to which you refer
did actually occur, although I naturally do not desire to assert
that they occurred with the entire knowledge and assent of the
Japanese Government. You will allow me to recall to your mind-
(1) that on 23rd June Lord Halifax [2] protested to the Japanese
Ambassador in London [3] against what Mr Chamberlain [4] described
as intolerable insults to British nationals at Tientsin;

(2) that on 27th June the British Consul-General at Tientsin [5]
protested to the Japanese authorities against indignities,
including stripping, which had been inflicted on British nationals
passing through the blockade barrier, and offered to submit sworn
statements by British subjects who had suffered indignities;

(3) that on 28th June Mr Chamberlain stated in the House of
Commons that all British subjects who had passed through the
barriers since the commencement of the blockade had been subjected
to a rigorous search and that the number of instances in which
British subjects had been compelled to strip was 15, including 1
woman.

I might refer also to the reported order given by the Commander of
the Japanese forces at Tientsin on 27th June to the effect that
foreigners were not to be subjected to indignities at the barriers
and to General Homma's reported statement that the Japanese did
not regard nudity as humiliating, both of which appear to me to
imply an acknowledgment that indignities had in fact been
inflicted on foreigners.

MINISTER FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS