BRITISH SHIPPING IN CHINA

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 241, 8 July 1938, Page 11

BRITISH SHIPPING IN CHINA

Discrimination Being

Practised

HOUSE OF COMMONS STATEMENT

Urgent Protests Made To

Japan

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received July 7, 10.30 p.m.) RUGBY, July 6.

Replying to questions in the House of Commons to-day, Mr. R. A. Butler, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, said: “According to reports from Shanghai it would appear that discrimination is in fact being practised against British shipping both on the Yangtse and other inland waterways of Chiha.

“Frequent representations have been made both in Tokio and Shanghai on this subject, and the British Ambassador in Tokio .is continuing to impress Japan with the urgency of the matter. “The possibility of instituting some sort of convoy system has received consideration, but as far as I am aware there is at present no demand for it on the part of the shipping companies concerned.” _ The British Government, said Mr. Butler, realised the importapce of the question, and pressure would continue to be exercised on Japan.

BOMBS THROWN IN SHANGHAI Commemoration Of Anniversary (Received July 7, 10.30 p.m.) Shanghai, July 7. Three bombs thrown simultaneously on the Bund at 6 a.m. to-day marked the beginning of the first anniversary of The objectives of the bombs were a Japanese sentry post, the hea<l<juarters of Japanese gendarmerie, the Yokohama .Specie Bank.

One Chinese was killed and one injured. Japanese soldiers and police have formed a cordon round the area. The Chinese also commemorated the anniversary of the war by attacking the Japanese on a 25-mile front between Pengtseh and Ilukow. on tiie south bank of the Yangtse-kiang and claim to have retaken Ilukow. WAR ANNIVERSARY Chiang Kai-shek’s Message To Japanese Hankow, July 6. “How many of your brothers and sons have become ghosts on the mainland? What have you got from Manchukuo except higher taxes’’ asks General Chiang Kai-shek, the Chinese Com-mander-in-Chief, in a war anniversary message to the Japanese nation to-day.

He points out that Japan has already spent more than she did in the whole of the Russo-Japanese war ami says that her army has become the world’s most barbarous and most cruel instrument of destruction.

MEDIATION NOT WANTED BY JAPAN

Tokio, July 6.

The Prime Minister; Prince Konoye, issued a statement reiterating his rejection of mediation in China. He admitted that it is not a simple task to crush General Chiang Kai-shek. He also issued a warning to the Japanese that they will feel the pinch harder in 1939.