Page 112 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 112
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
Foreign Office S.W.1.
In any further communication on this Subject please quote:
No. HG 1101/56 and address not to any person by name but to
‘The Undersecretary of State’
Foreign Office,
London SW1.
August 13, 1954.
Sir,
I am directed by Sir Winston Churchill to state that a claim against the Japanese
Government in respect of the kidnapping and ill-treatment of the late Mr. H.F.Dyott in China in
1939 has been revived in accordance with the provisions of Article 18(a) of the Treaty of Peace
with Japan. This matter has since been taken up with the Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs
who have stated that their investigations show no evidence that the Japanese Military authorities
were privy to the kidnapping.
I am also to state that the contemporary official records of this incident indicate that you
took part in the negotiations for the release of Mr. Dyott, and I am to enquire therefore if you can
furnish any information to which you can testify of your own knowledge, which might support this
claim. In particular it is thought that you may be able to corroborate a report containing a
statement made by a Yamen runner who had brought a message from the Chinese Captain of
the local self preservation corps at Peitangkou where Mr. Dyott and his kidnappers were
detained by Japanese troops. A later report stated that you had talked with this runner.
I am to add that any other information which you can furnish that would tend to confirm
that the Japanese were privy to the kidnapping or, at the least, that they did not show diligence
in preventing it, might, if you can subsequently testify to it, give valuable support to the claim.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
C.H. Hames (signed)
G. Findlay Andrew Esq.,
Dept. Of Education,
P.O. Box 746,
Singapore.
112
Amy Moore
Foreign Office S.W.1.
In any further communication on this Subject please quote:
No. HG 1101/56 and address not to any person by name but to
‘The Undersecretary of State’
Foreign Office,
London SW1.
August 13, 1954.
Sir,
I am directed by Sir Winston Churchill to state that a claim against the Japanese
Government in respect of the kidnapping and ill-treatment of the late Mr. H.F.Dyott in China in
1939 has been revived in accordance with the provisions of Article 18(a) of the Treaty of Peace
with Japan. This matter has since been taken up with the Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs
who have stated that their investigations show no evidence that the Japanese Military authorities
were privy to the kidnapping.
I am also to state that the contemporary official records of this incident indicate that you
took part in the negotiations for the release of Mr. Dyott, and I am to enquire therefore if you can
furnish any information to which you can testify of your own knowledge, which might support this
claim. In particular it is thought that you may be able to corroborate a report containing a
statement made by a Yamen runner who had brought a message from the Chinese Captain of
the local self preservation corps at Peitangkou where Mr. Dyott and his kidnappers were
detained by Japanese troops. A later report stated that you had talked with this runner.
I am to add that any other information which you can furnish that would tend to confirm
that the Japanese were privy to the kidnapping or, at the least, that they did not show diligence
in preventing it, might, if you can subsequently testify to it, give valuable support to the claim.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
C.H. Hames (signed)
G. Findlay Andrew Esq.,
Dept. Of Education,
P.O. Box 746,
Singapore.
112
