In the circumstances prevailing at ihe time it was only natural he added. Asked -why Tinkler had not been handed over at the request of ihe British Consular authorities at 4 p.m. the Embassy spokesman replied that it had been necessary to carry out investigations on the Japanese side. "It must be recalled," he said, "that the Japanese Force at the time, was carrying out its duties, besides having been specially posted there at the request of the British authorities and against this Force this Briton adopted a provocative aititade and resisted this Force."
The Japanese authorities, therefore, could not very well have handed the man over after such circumstances, he added.
Pointing out that a naval spokesman had stated on Tuesday that the only wound received by Tinkler had been an injury caused by the butt of the rifle, a questioner asked if the Japanese authorities had known at the time that the man had come into contact with the bayonets, The spokesman replied that at the time he was not aware of the. exact extent of the injuries.
"Did he receive the bayonet thrust Arst or the blow from the rifle butt?" the questioner continued, "He was disarmed by being hit on the arm and then he started to grapple with the sailor and then he was surrounded by the others," the spokesman replied. He agreed that the man had not been handed over to the British authorities until he was almost dead. Asked when the bayonet wounds were firstsattended to the spokesman said that the man had kept on refusing treatment for several hours before he had been difficult to find out what had happened. "When the man had been hit he recovered and was able to walk to the Japanese Naval Landing Party Headquarters? a questioner asked. "He did walk. As stated before the spokesman did not re-Ceive^full details yesterday," was the reply. The Japanese authorities were aware that he had been wounded at about 9 o'clock on Tuesday night and as the spokesman was not solely in charge of the case and as he had other matters to attend to, he had not issued a communication about the bayonet wounds.
He did not know whether the sentries had been posted outside. the operating theatre to keep the injured man in "protective custody." Asked if the owners of the bayonets had been asked if the man had come into contact with their weapons, the spokesman replied that he was not in a position to go to every soldier and ask him whether his bayonet had come into contact with Tinkler. He could not devote his time only to press releases and subjects like that.
Future demands would be made to the British authorities but the nature of the demands could not be disclosed at the moment, he said. Asked if this action would be taken independently of any finding of H.M. Coroner's jury, he stated that no such consideration had been given. He added that he was not in a position to discus the question when asked, as he had seen a lot of fighting in China and had some knowledge of bayonet wounds, whether it would be possible for the man to have walked with six such wounds in his body.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.