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Documents Relating to New Zealand's Participation in the Second World War 1939–45: Volume III

101 — The Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs to the Prime Minister of New Zealand

101
The Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs to the Prime Minister of New Zealand

8 December 1941

His Majesty's Ambassador at Tokyo has been instructed to make the following communication at once to the Japanese Government:

‘On the evening of 7 December His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom learned that Japanese forces, without previous warning either in the form of a declaration of war or of an ultimatum with a conditional declaration of war, had attempted a landing on the coast of Malaya and bombed Singapore and Hong Kong.

page 106

‘In view of these wanton acts of unprovoked aggression committed in flagrant violation of International Law, and particularly of Article 1 of the Third Hague Convention relative to the opening of hostilities,1 to which both Japan and the United Kingdom are parties, I have the honour to inform the Imperial Japanese Government in the name of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom that a state of war exists between our two countries.’

1 Article 1 of the Third Hague Convention (18 Oct 1907) reads:

‘The contracting parties recognise that hostilities between themselves must not commence without a previous explicit warning in the form either of a reasoned declaration of war or of an ultimatum with conditional declaration of war.’