893.102S/1801: Telegram
The Consul General at Shanghai (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 14—7 a.m.]
382. Chairman of Shanghai Municipal Council yesterday addressed the Senior Consul to the effect that on May 5 Japanese gendarmes arrested five Chinese in the International Settlement south of Soochow Creek, giving no notice to the police and making no request for police cooperation or assistance. Persons arrested were not handed over to the police. (It is understood they were immediately taken to Japanese occupied territory.) Chairman points out that this is a violation of the recent understanding regarding cooperation for detection and suppression of terrorism under which Japanese gendarmes are not to function independently of the police. The Chairman asserts that on no occasion has police assistance been refused when requested for the purpose of investigating alleged acts of terrorism. He states that while the plea of urgency may be advanced in an attempt to justify the action taken without awaiting police cooperation it is difficult to understand what plea can be made to justify failure to deliver the persons arrested to the nearest police station. He declares that unless repetition of such incidents can be prevented [Page 50] it will be quite impossible for the municipal police to continue with mutual confidence that cooperation which the Japanese authorities have requested and he asks that steps be taken to obtain assurance from the Japanese authorities that there will be no repetition of such an incident.
Repeated to Chungking and Peiping. By air mail to Tokyo.