Page 59 - Il Mediterraneo quale elemento del Potere Marittimo - Atti 16-18 settembre 1996

RISING SUN IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 45

1. The Tushima and the Niitaka to be sent to the Cape of Good Hope.
2. The Akashi and a detachment of destroyers, consisting of two flottilas, under
command of Rear Admiral, to be sent to the Mediterranean.
3. Those vessels not to be placed under the command of the Admiral Commander-
in-Chief of the British Naval Forces, but to act in cooperation with him or at
his request.
8. It is to be understood that any reinforcement of the Japanese ships now to be
sent will be impossible under actual conditions of the Japanese Navy, and that
the ships to be based on Malta will not be called upon to extend their opera-
tions beyond the Mediterranean (32) (No. 4, 5, 6, 7 conditions are omitted).
Conceding to the British request, the Japanese Government finally decided
on February 1Oth at the Cabinet meeting, to send a one light cruiser Akashi and
eight destroyers. The Eleventh destroyer flotilla (later changed formation number
to 24th Flotilla), four 650 tons Kaba class, left Japan on 18th February 1917 to
join the flagship light cruiser Akashi and Tenth destroyer flotilla (later 23rd Flotil-
la) in Singapore on 5th March. The Second Special Squadron left Singapore com-
manded by Rear Admiral Sato Kozo for the Mediterranean on 11th March, arriving
at Malta on 16th April, via Colombo, Aden, and Port Said. Using Malta as base,
the Second Special Squadron thereafter discharged the most important duties, of
escorting Allied troopships until the end of war (35> •
. By the end of April 1918, the loss·es of shipping again became severe, and
the British Navy asked for Japan twelve more destroyers. Then on 1st May, Am-
bassador Greene handed Minister Motono a confidential private letter stating that
a large number of ships were being lost by the Germany's unrestricted submarine
campaign. Therefore, the British needed as much Japanese n~val assistance as pos-
6
sible in European waters <3 >. In adition, on 5 May, the King and Queen invited
the Japanese Ambassador and his wife to Windsor Castle, where King George V
asked for more destroyers to be sent the Mediterranean. Furthermore, on 13th May,
Greene again asked Motono for further assistance <3 >. However, because of lack
7
of big destroyers, the Japanese Navy expressed unwillingness to despatch twelve
destroyers. Instead, the Japanese Government decided to send four newly construc-
ted Momo class 850 .ton destroyers at the 23th of May Cabinet meeting, in the ex-
pectation that Britain would supply the materials required for the construction of
substitute destroyers. Motono also added that Japan could not send any more de-
stroyers, due to the lack of appropriate ocean type destroyers <3B>, On 25 June, the
Fifteenth Flotilla left Japan and arrived in Malta in August 1917.
On 6th June, the British Navy asked the Japanese naval attache, Rear Admi-
ral Funakosi Kajishiro, for the Japanese Navy's 1800 sailors to be employed on
the British fourteen destroyers and six sloops, stating that the British Government
would bear all expenses <39). Ambassador Chinda Sutemi in London counselled Ja-
pan to comply with this demand on 21thJune. Naval Attache Funakosi and Rear
40
Adminil Sato also stated similar positive advice < ). There arose opposition within