DANGER OF CLASH

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

DANGER OF CLASH

BRITISH WARNING TO JAPAN MATTER OF PRINCIPLE INVOLVED • Received 14th June. 9.15 a.m.) LONDON, 13th June. . The British Ambassador in Tokio,! Sir Robert Craigie, has been instructed to warn Japan of the dangers of an Anglo-Japanese clash in Tientsin. The British refusal to hand over four Chinese whom the Japanese allege to be involved in a murder is a matter of principle, inasmuch as no evidence is forthcoming against them, and surrendering them would create a precedent tending to undermine British influence in the treaty ports. The deadlock may be solved by the appointment of an AngloJapanese committee with a neutral chairman. The Japanese yesterday informed the United States Consulate in Shanghai • that the blockade of the British and French Concessions in Tientsin will | begin on Wednesday. Reuters’ in Tokio report that the Japanese in Tientsin are establishing seven posts along the borders of the British and French concessions in order to interrogate and search all persons passing in and out. Only those engaged i in official business are allowed to pass, j A message from Tientsin states that j the present population of the British concession is 47,000, including 2700 Britons. In the French concession there are 61,000 persons, about 1000 of them French. A message from Chungking states that the British United Press agency 1 says that the Chinese Foreign Office is reported to have protested to the British Embassy against the action of the British in Tientsin in handing over two Chinese terrorists to the Japanese.

i After issuing two ultimatums to I residents in the British Concession in ! Tientsin, threatening to erect barriers ! and isolate the Concession unless the I murderers of Cheg Shi-kang, branch (manager of the Federal Reserve Bank, j who is alleged to have been killed in j j the British Concession on 9th April, are I handed over, Japanese authorities on i Sunday announced that they had com- | menced action to isolate the Concession. To make this effective, they de- j clared, the adjoining French Conces-1 sion also would be isolated.