JAPAN MAY PROTEST

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 18, 22 January 1940, Page 9

JAPAN MAY PROTEST

SEIZURE OF GERMANS

REPORT BY MASTER OF SHIP

STANDARD OIL CREWS

(By Telegraph—Press Association —CopytiE&t.l (Received January 22, 2.45 p.m.) NEW YORK, January 21. The Tokio correspondent of the United Press says that the Foreign Office is studying a report by the master of the Asama Maru. The Vessel was stopped at 1 p.m. yon January 21 by a British warship, which took off 22 German merchant sailors, who were on their way to Germany from' the United States. A Japanese protest to London is possible. The British Embassy issued a statement that the action was fully in accordance with international law. Only technicians and skilled ratings who would be particularly useful to the German war effort were removed. Passengers reported that the Asama Maru had sighted land when she was challenged by a cruiser. She continued on her way until a shot was fired across her bows A boarding party of tliree officers and nine men, acting with the utmost courtesy, completed the examination in an hour and a half. A San Francisco message says the sailors seized were from the crews of tankers belonging to the Standard Oil Company, New Jersey. All the seamen from the Columbus are still in San Francisco. The / intention of the Standard Oil Company to return several hundred seamen to Germany across the Pacific will probably be abandoned as a result of the seizure. The company may be forced to support men of military age in the United States for the duration Of the war.