QUALIFIED APOLOGY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 220, 17 August 1939, Page 9

QUALIFIED APOLOGY.

FACE SLAPPING INCIDENT.

Received August 17, 11.10 a.m. TOKIO, Aug. 17. The Japanese Embassy in Peking lias offered the United States a qualified apology in connection with the action of a sentry in slapping the face of an American lady, declaring that the sentries, simple men, interpreted orders sometimes rashly. The Shanghai correspondent of the Times says the United States protest demands "the punishment of the sentry and assurances that there will be no repetition of such acts. BORDER OF HONG KONG. JAPANESE ADVANCE. BRITISH TROOPS RUSHED UP. HONG KONG, Aug. 16. A company of the Middlesex Regiment and a company of the Rajputana Rifles have been rushed to the border of the British territory in Kowloon Peninsula (part of the Hong Kong Colony), after a landing made by 1000 Japanese during the night at Namtau, on the Pearl River Delta. The Japanese have advanced along the border between the British, and Chinese territories. Four ’planes preceded the troops and bombed the railway in the centre of Shumchun, which was occupied early this morning. The British received 18 hours’ notice of the Japanese move, which has resulted in the Japanese now being strung out along the border. At least 5000 Chinese took panic and entered Hong Kong, where the food shortage is already serious. BLOCKADE FEARED. Reuter’s Hong Kong correspondent says it is feared the Japanese landing is a preliminary to a blockade of Hong Kong similar to that of Tientsin. British and Japanese troops are now facing one another across the border bridge at Shumchun.