SERIOUS SITUATION

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

SERIOUS SITUATION

NEGOTIATIONS FOR SETTLEMENT PROCEEDING STATEMENT IN HOUSE OF COMMONS [British Official Wireless) (Received 14th June, 10.15 a.m.) RUGBY, 13th June. The situation in Tientsin was the sub-

ject of questions in the House of Commons. Replying. Mr R. A. Butler, Undersecretary, for Foreign Affairs, said that on 9th April the manager of the Federal Reserve Bank and the newly appointed Superintendent of Customs was assassinated in the British Concession. ! This was the first case of violence I which had occurred in the Concession i since the outbreak of hostilities. The I assassin, a Chinese, escaped and the ' 1 municipal authorities invited Japanese •' co-operation and carried out a number •! of raids in the Concession, as a result I j of which several arrests were made. ■ The Japanese alleged that four of these • were members of a terrorist gang coni’ i nected with the above murder and • i with the death of three Japanese solds! iers. These men were handed over to • them Cor questioning and made con--1 I Cessions implicating themselves which, | however, they later retracted when ! taken in the custody of the British ! municipal authorities. A warning j proclamation was issued on 7th June • that any breach of neutrality in the future would be dealt with by either handing the culprit over to the de facto authorities for trial or by expulsion - from the concession. The four men in - question, however, were arrested before - the issue of that proclamation. Mr Butler added: Tin the absence of (evidence connecting them with the ) crime other than their own confessions -1 made while in the custody of the Japanese and, as they allege, - under torture, • Britain did not feel justified in giving J j instructions for them to be handed over 1 j to the local district court. This attitude r | is in accordance with the practice fol--j lowed for the past 22 months. The U British Consul-General accordingly Jn- * formed his Japanese colleague on 7th

June that the four men would be held by him pending the production of further evidence, failing which they would eventually be expelled from the Concession. Two other men found in possession of bombs would be handed over and in future offenders would be dealt with as in the proclamation rej ferred to above. The Japanese indicated that they consider this reply to be unsatisfactory, and certain measures had already been taken to effect the removal of Japanese business houses from the Concession and isolate it. “The situation is serious, but negotiations arc still proceeding and it is hoped a settlement can be reached.” Asked if the Japanese realised the serious results of the action they were reported to be contemplating, Mr Butler replied: “I think the Japanese arc aware of Britain's attitude.” CONVICTION QUASHED i (Received 14th June, 9.40 a.m.) LONDON, 13th June. The Court of Criminal Appeal quashed the conviction of Gerald Francis Wharton, who was released.

On 3rd April, when Wharton was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment, along with other participants in an Irish Republican Army terrorist plot, the Judge said that Wharton was a member of a gang who murdered British officers and others up to 1922. He was the worst and most dangerous of the accused. He had fought against two Irish Governments and vainly tried to tunnel from prison. He was released in 1924 with a pension from the Irish Government.