The Swiss have been considering the British request of April 14 and today sees an interdepartmental memo that makes their impotence clear:
It is necessary to remember that a note from the British Government of 21 December 1941 asked us to take on the the task of representing British interests in Hong Kong. The Japanese Government, when presented with this request, replied (in) a telegram of January 30 that they could not agree.
The reason for Tokyo's refusal was that the Japanese, in imitation of the Germans, had abolished all consular representation in the territories it had occupied, and decreed that the neutral country whose ambassador represented the enemy country's interests in Tokyo should extend his responsibility to the whole Japanese empire. In Britain's case, this made the 'Protecting Power' Argentina.
All the Swiss could do in this case was tell the British their Government would lend its support to the Red Cross in a request to be allowed to help British nationals in Hong Kong.
Source:
Letter from The Federal Political Department to Federal Councillor Pilet-Golaz, 17 April 1942 in Swiss Federal Archives (Berne)
Note: Not long after this letter, Switzerland replaced Argentina as the 'Protecting Power' for Britain in Tokyo. However, it was obviously difficult for the Swiss Ambassador, Camille Gorgé, to intervene effectively in Hong Kong. On June 27, 1942 Rudolf Zindel became the Red Cross representative (later the full Delegate) in Hong Kong, and, took on some of the functions of the representative of the Protecting Power, proving a valuable aid to the Tokyo Embassy until the Red Cross insisted he stop because the role of Delegate was incompatible with such activity.