Source : https://www.nytimes.com/1940/10/25/archives/hong-kong-shifts-its-defenses-to-block-japanese-spys-scheme-soldier.html
The New York Times - Oct. 25, 1940
Hong Kong Shifts Its Defenses To Block Japanese Spy's Scheme; Soldier Confesses Plot to Sell Vital Maps, but Says They Were Not Delivered- Authorities Take No Chances
MANILA, Oct. 24-A bold Japanese attempt at espionage is forcing the British defense forces at Hong Kong to make radical changes in the dispositions of various defense provisions. This is a precautionary measure in the fear that Japanese authorities may have secured a vital defense map through the bribery of a private soldier in a British regiment.
Travelers arriving from Hong Kong say that the Japanese believed guilty of engineering the plot is Geturo Yamaguchi, who was arrested on Aug. 3 under the emergency defense regulations and is still imprisoned, virtually incomunicado. It is considered significant that, while Japanese consular authorities in Hong Kong, Singapore and London raised a great to-do about the arrest of other of their citizens in various cities of the British Empire, both the Japanese Consul General in Hong Kong and the Tokyo government have been singularly silent about the Yamaguchi affair.
Yamaguchi previously was a merchant in Foochow. He moved to Hong Kong about fifteen months ago and opened an inconspicuous store on Kennedy Road, a portion of Hong Kong largely frequented by British soldiers and sailors during their hours of liberty. The Japanese soon was on friendly terms with several soldiers and was often seen drinking with them at various bars.
On Aug. 2 a private British soldier apparently lost his nerve, suffered a breakdown, and abruptly confessed to his sergeant that he had agreed to sell to Yamaguchi, for a very large sum, maps of the defense gun positions and ammunition storages. The sergeant immediately put the private under arrest, searched his trunk and found vital maps that the private said should have been delivered to Yamaguchi that night.
The private insisted that thus far he had delivered no maps to Yamaguchi, but the military authorities, fearing that his testimony might be false and that the maps found in his trunk were only copies, are now busy with extensive precautionary changes.
Hong Kong newspapers are sternly forbidden to mention the arrest of the soldier or any phase of the affair, except Yamaguchi's detention on an unspecified charge. The Hong Kong press is forbidden to mention the British soldier involved or the fact that his court-martial began last week in secret sessions.
Yamaguchi has been frequently interrogated, but has not yet been tried. It is understood that the trial of the soldier has been delayed this long because he declared that he had not yet received any money from the Japanese.
The British authorities, therefore. have been carefully watching the bank deposits of all his relatives in the vicinity of the soldier's home in England, thinking that possibly payment might be made in this roundabout manner.