TWO JAPANESE BUSINESS MEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 August 1940, Page 5

TWO JAPANESE BUSINESS MEN

A spokesman at the Japanese Ambassador’s office said: “We were flabbergasted, as the arrested men are sympathetic to Britain and probably more British-minded than the average Briton. We hope everything may be settled satisfactorily. We cannot imagine anything on their part to invite suspicion.” Mr Tanabe was transferred to the London office two or three months ago. He has an English wife and one daughter. The Mitsubishi Company has large palatial offices in Fenchurch Street in the city of London. The staff did not know of the detentions till they read the evening papers. A member of the staff said Mr Makihara had been London manager of the company for nearly 10 years. A report from Tokio says the general opinion there is that the arrests are in retaliation for the local round-up. The Foreign Office and Navy spokesman declined to comment. He said he was awajting further details. A representative of the Mitsubishi Company said jF*' they had been informed only by the Domei agency. However, he indicated that an appeal was being planned. Semi-official sources in Tokio have been asserting that such an action would be merely retaliation and would be strongly resented. The Foreign Office, the Navy, and the Army, upon receipt of details, would discuss and decide on a strong attitude to Britain and, according to Tokio sources, the Foreign Minister, Mr Matsuoka, would protest to the British Ambassador, Sir Robert Craigie, and to Mr Shigemitsu, the Japanese Minister in London. The newspaper “Yomiuri Shimbun” said that, besides being a “disgraceful retaliatory scheme,” the London arrests were also an attempt to obstruct Japan’s European trade.

Heads of Heavy Industry and Armament Firms ACTION UNDER DEFENCE REGULATIONS NOT IN ANY WAY A REPRISAL (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) LONDON, August 3. Two Japanese have been arrested in London under the defence regulations. They are Mr Satoru Makihara, head of the London branch of the Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha, and Mr Shunsuke Tanabe, acting-chief of the London branch of the Mitsui Bussan Kaisha, the Mitsubishi and Mitsui being Japan’s largest heavy industry and armament firms. The police are reported to have searched Mr Makihara s house before his arrest, but no papers were taken. The arrests, it is understood, were made under an aliens order, giving the Home Secretary power to deport or order the detention of aliens. Their detention is not a reprisal but merely coincides with the arrests of British subjects in Japan. Earlier Tokio reports had stated that a number of Japanese were arrested in London and elsewhere in the Empire. It is learned that the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, had a 25-minute interview with the Japanese Ambassador. He pointed out that the Japanese business men were arrested under an aliens order in the interests of security. He emphasised that it was not in any way an act of reprisal.