Pointing out that under the German Prize Ordinance of 1939 the German Government maintained similar views, and in practice in the present war had gone further, the British Note remarked: "The Imterial Japanese Government. will not expect His Majesty's Government to be bound by a supposed rule which is denied and disregarded by their In view of the liability ofall Germans of military age to military service, the Note stressed that it was impossible to draw a valid distinct tion between those who had actually joined, and those who were journeying, in pursuance of their legal duty to join their unit.
Their special knowledge of Diesel engines rendered it practically, cer-lain that some of the men taken from the Asama Maru would have been employed in submarine service, the Note continued. Thus they would be taking part in illegal activities of a kind which had caused so much
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.