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from http://www.japantoday.com/ __________ British WWI air force officer spied for Japan, files show Will Hollingworth Friday, January 4, 2002 at 09:30 JST LONDON - A pillar of the British establishment was passing secret information about aviation design to Japan during the 1920s, according to secret government files declassified Thursday. The Foreign Office files from 1926 show that Lord Sempill, reputedly one of the founders of the Royal Flying Corps in World War I, passed details of British "aeronautical construction" to the Japanese naval attache in London, Capt Teijiro Toyoda. The records, which have remained classified for the last 75 years, indicate that the espionage took place roughly between 1922 and early 1926. Sempill, who died in 1965, had worked in Japan as part of the British air mission and served as an adviser to the Japanese naval air service. From the files, it would appear that Sempill was stationed in Japan between 1920 and 1922. Sempill was apparently well respected within Japanese circles and received a personal letter from the then Japanese Prime Minister Tomosaburo Kato (1922-1923) who thanked Sempill for his work with the Japanese Navy which he described as "almost epoch making." The files show that after his return to Britain, intelligence services in Britain became suspicious about his activities and obtained a warrant from the Home Secretary to search Sempill's home. They found correspondence between the Japanese naval attache and Sempill. In addition, there was evidence that Sempill had been paid for his services. According to the files, Sempill also tried to get details of a secret seaplane, codenamed Iris, which was being built by a British company where he also acted as an adviser. Sempill allegedly tried to get information by getting into the plane's hangar and then talking to the staff. It is unclear from the documents if any secret information was gleaned and whether it was passed on to Japan. The Foreign Office became involved in the Sempill case after learning that he was on the verge of being appointed Greece's aeronautical adviser in March 1926. The Security Services advised the Foreign Office and the British Embassy in Athens that Britain could not be seen to endorse Sempill's appointment because of his past activities. However, public prosecutors decided not to press charges against Sempill as the evidence against him involved photographic copies of letters written by Sempill to the attache and the government would have to reveal how it got this information and disclose its sources. Regarding the flying boat incident, prosecutors believed it would be hard to take action against Sempill as he served as an occasional adviser to the company, and the employees he talked to might not have actually considered the project as being top secret. Sempill, who was frustrated by what he regarded was a whispering campaign designed to stop him from getting the appointment in Greece, demanded to see security chiefs. At the meeting they told him that they knew of his links to the Japanese attache. The documents say Sempill then realized that he had been lucky to get away without any charges and stopped his complaints. The Daily Telegraph on Thursday described Sempill as a "pillar of the British establishment" and called him one of the founders of the Royal Flying Corps in World War I and that his father was an aide to King George V. Sempill was chairman of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1926 and served as a member of the Royal Naval Air Service between 1939 and 1941, the newspaper said. Japan awarded Sempill the Order of the Rising Sun in 1961, it said. (Kyodo News) ____________________ Click the link below to view this article and related discussions on Japan Today http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&id=189487 ____________________ __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send your FREE holiday greetings online! http://greetings.yahoo.com ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
