Anglo-Japanese Agreement (1939)

Arita Agreement - Craigi is an agreement concluded as a result of the exchange of notes between British Ambassador Robert Leslie Craigi and Japanese Foreign Minister Hatiro Arita . Under this agreement, Britain recognized Japan’s “free hands” in China , and Japan promised not to take action that could limit British interests in China.

In 1937, an undeclared war broke out between Japan and China. The dispute between Britain and Japan over interests in China began with the incident in Tianjin in April 1939, when the director of maritime customs, a pro-Japanese Chinese, was killed on the territory of the international settlement in Tianjin. The Chinese, suspected of committing a crime, took refuge in the territory of the English concession. Moreover, the British refused the Japanese request for his extradition. What the Japanese responded with the blockade of the British concession in Tianjin. After that, the Japanese began to conduct anti-British actions throughout China, and also began to demand concessions when creating a "new order" throughout East Asia. Thus, the Tianjin incident resulted in a debate about British and Japanese influence in China.

Negotiations between British Ambassador Robert Craigi and Japanese Foreign Minister Hatiro Arita began on July 15, 1939. First, the issue of influence in China was considered, then the parties turned to the issue of the incident in Tianjin. The British government, realistically assessing the situation, decided to make concessions.

Consequences

Under the terms of the agreement, Japan recognized “special rights” (ie, seizures) in China, plus Great Britain guaranteed non-interference in the actions of the Japanese occupation authorities . This significantly strengthened the position of Japan in China and allowed the Japanese command to more boldly use troops from the expeditionary forces stationed here on the Khalkhingol direction, after the Japanese were defeated in the Battle of Bainzagan in July ^[1] .

For the Third Reich, the conclusion of the “Arita – Craigi Pact” turned out to be a diplomatic defeat, since it became impossible to use Japan to distract Britain from European events and reduced the chances of achieving international isolation of Poland ^[2] . At that time, Germany and Japan were bound by allied commitments for almost three years.

For the Soviet Union , which at that time was already at war with Japan in Mongolia, the fact that Britain concluded an agreement with a member of the Anti-Comintern Pact was evidence of London’s reluctance to conclude an agreement with the USSR and its readiness to conclude an analogue of the Munich agreement ^[2] .