With regard to the visit made to the Japanese liner "Asama Maru" by a British man-of-war off the coast of Boso Peninsula yesterday afternoon (January 21), the Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Masayuki Tani, invited British Ambassador Sir Robert Craigie to the Foreign Office at 11:00 p.m. today and presented to him the following views and protest of the Japanese Government.
1. On the 21st of January, at 12:50 p.m., a British warship ordered the Japanese vessel "Asama Maru", which was on her return voyage to Yokohama from Honolulu, to heave to at a point thirty-five nautical miles off Nojimasaki Point, Chiba Prefecture. The Japanese vessel, therefore, came to a stop at 12:54 p.m. at a point 34°34′ North Latitude and 140°31′ East Longitude. Thereupon the said British warship sent an officer and several seamen to the "Asama Maru," and, claiming that it was acting in accordance with international law and without explaining reasons for its action in detail and even without revealing its name, demanded delivery of twenty-one German passengers. The captain of the "Asama Maru" refused the demand, but he was unable to prevent the British warship from taking a forcible measure for removing the said German passengers.
2. It must be fully known to the British Government that the Japanese Government have adhered to the principle in accordance with the generally accepted usage that those nationals of one billigerent [sic] Power aboard a neutral vessel whose delivery the other belligerent may demand on the high seas must be limited to those actually embodied in the armed forces. But nevertheless a British warship has taken the above-mentioned forcible measure against a Japanese vessel in the waters near Japan. The Japanese Government cannot but regard such British action as a serious, unfriendly act against Japan, and therefore they attach the greatest importance to the affair.
3. The Japanese Government cannot acquiesce in the measure taken by the British Navy regarding which they demand the British Government to give them a full and valid explanation promptly. The Japanese Government hereby explicitly reserve in advance the right to demand delivery to them of the detained Germans.
4. In view of the fact that the British action has already given a great shock to public opinion in Japan, repetition of such an action in future would aggravate all the more the sentiment of the Japanese nation against Great Britain. From the broad viewpoint of the future relations between Japan and Great Britain the Japanese Government request the British Government to pay their serious consideration to the matter.