TENSION INCREASING!

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 14 June 1939, Page 7

TENSION INCREASING!

JAPANESE PATIENCE EXHAUSTED FURTHER NEGOTIATIONS WITH BRITAIN USELESS BLOCKADE OF TIENTSIN IU.RA —Hy Electric Telegraph-Copyright; • Received 14th June, 9.55 a.m.) TOKIO, 13th June. Cabinet met to-day to consider the situation in Tientsin. The Japanese spokesman stated that Japan’s patience was exhausted, and further negotiations with Britain were useless. The Japanese authorities in Tientsin officially announced that the blockade will commence at 5 a.m. local time, on 14th June. The proclamation of the Tientsin blockade bans all traffic between the Japanese Concession and the Chinese quarters and the British and French Concessions. The international bridge will be closed from G a.m. to midnight and roads to and from the British and French Concessions from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Pedestrians and vehicles are liable to search. Shipping on the Pei river has been ordered to heave to for inspection. Violations of this demand wil be dealt with "as stipulated by the commander of the Japanese Army.” An Army spokesman said: The question cannot now be settled by the mere transfer of the wanted men. The ariyiy will never bury the hatchet unless the authorities of the British concession reconsider their attitude, co-operate in the construction of a new order in East Asia and abandon their policies favouring General Chiang Kai-shek. Commodity prices have risen 20 per cent.