ACUTE TENSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 308, 29 December 1937, Page 7

ACUTE TENSION.

TSINGTAO'S FATE

Chinese Blowing up Bridges to Stop Advance.

japan seeks revenge.

United Press Association.—Copyright.

(Received. 1.30 p.m.)

LONDON", December 28,

v e « "cute tension at Tsingtao, whence 4o Americans have been evacuated. Chinese banks are closed, shops shuttered and streets deserted.

lhe Chinese have blown up all bridges on the Tsinaai-Tsingtao railway in an a emp to check the Japanese who, after occupation of Tsinan, are pursuing the Chinese to Taian.

They claim to be able to cut off the retreat of the Chinese in Tsingtao district, on which it is expected they will avenge the burning of the Tsingtao cotton mills. °

Japanese have notified their intention ot replacing Chinese policing roads outside tile Settlement at Tsingtao owing to Chinese abandoning their jobs in the post office. Britons and foreigners volunteered to maintain the service.

Ihree Chinese newspapers suspended pu ilication owing to the disappearance of tJieir staffs.

Systematic blowing up of Japanese cotton mills has begun.

Macao awakened at dawn to reports of heavy artillery ten miles south-west ■of the city from Wongnan Island, which the Japanese, after shelling, have occupied. Reports from Portuguese, who possess the rights on Wongnan Island, so far have not been received.

A BUSY TIME.

Japan's Strenuous Week of

Apologies.

BRITISH PRESS COMMENT

LONDON, December 28.

"The Times" states in a leading article: "llie Japanese Government has rounded off a fortnight of strenuous apologies by presenting the American Government with a Xote on the Panav which repeats its earlier expressions of regret, and goes on to say at some length that it was all a mistake.

"It cannot be said that the Japanese explanations, although always plausible and sometimes obviously true, are consistently convincing. The tone of the American acceptance was chilly enough to dispel whatever Japanese hopes there may be that any future incident would only have to be called an accident to be liquidated.

"Hereafter the militarists, however lightly they may regard the pledged word of the Government they serve, will hardly dare to tread on American toes.

"A significant point in the Emperor's declaration to the Diet, that 'our armies are enhancing their prestige at home and abroad,' is not that it says what is patently untrue about foreign opinion, but that it says what is partly untrue about home opinion.

"It would be ridiculous to suppose that, with the launching of a ruthless war of aggression, all ideals, all enlightenment and all wisdom had suddenly ceased to exist in Japan."

The "Manchester Guardian" says: "The sinking of the Panay may have been settled as a diplomatic incident, but it may also be remembered in history as the turning point in the development of American foreign policy.

"Mr. Roosevelt's speech at Chicago met with little response. Nothing had then occurred to shock the American people to his realisation of danger, but the message that speech repeated, to-day would have a very different response. Possibly it will be different again in a few weeks, when, in every town and village of the Middle West, the film of the bombing of the Panay has been shown. "Mr. Roosevelt will know how to take advantage of this lively emotion, but it is not likely that he will concern himself only with American interests." FORCES THANKED. JAPANESE DIET ADJOURNS. TOKYO, December 28. The Diet, before adjourning for the New Year recess, voted its thanks to the forces operating in China. Both Houses also adopted Addresses to the Tlione in reply to the Emperor's Speech. They recorded a grim determination to attain the "ultimate objective of the punitive expedition against China." PANAY FILMS. OFFICIAL HANDS-OFF POLICY. WASHINGTON, December 28. The United States has decided to maintain a hands-off policy in reference to the showing of the Panay films and to refrain from censorship even by suggestion. Thus there will be no preview by President Roosevelt and State Department officials. The films are expected in New York to-morrow and will be distributed to the threatres immediately.

The Secretary of State, Mr. Cordell Hull, denied a report that a secret agreement between America and Japan was behind the Panay settlement. He said he was not ready to comment on the regulations which the Japanese military authorities were imposing on foreigners in China.