TREATY PORTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 29 June 1939, Page 7

TREATY PORTS

FOREIGN SHIPPING ADVISED TO LEAVE ISLANDS OCCUPIED RY JAPANESE HEAVY FIGHTING AT WENCHOW (Received 29th June, 9.25 a.m.) LONDON, 28th June. Islands opposite Foochow and Wen«how were occupied by the Japanese. Naval planes dropped leaflets to foreign ships advising them to leave port. Sailors landed at the mouth of the Min river. Officers requested two British destroyers, also merchant ves- ; sels, to withdraw from the river. Italian and Nor vegian ships complied with the request to leave Wenchow, but British shipping at Foochow refused. MARTIAL LAW AT FOOCHOW The Chinese declared marliul law at Foochow, which they are preparing to defend. Shipping is forbidden to enter or leave the harbour after 29th June. Heavy fighting commenced on Yuhwang Island, at the mouth of Wenchow harbour. BRITISH SUBJECTS FAVOUR EVACUATION A mass meeting of British subjects held to-day in the Foochow treaty port favoured evacuation, though the British Ambassador the Consul to dissuade them because of the difficulty of returning once they left. The Japanese Consul-General in Swatow to-day announced that foreign ships will be temporarily prohibited in the harbour because of the necessity of maintaining peace and order. Official Chinese figures released in Shanghai show that the British Empire will lose £5,743.000 yearly if Japan is allowed to impose a blockade, similar to that now enforced in Canton, along the Yanglse Valley. The British Consulate at Tientsin has asked the Japanese to produce evidence in support of their allegations that the British are exaggerating and fabricat-

ing happenings at the searching posts Signed and incontrovertible statements have been submitted ’o the Japanese Consul of indignities to Britons. The Japanese are reported to be hastening preparations for the declaration of a form of federal government in China for the second anniversary of the war on 7th July. A message from Hong Kong states that passengers and mail on the British steamer Siestan were transferred to the British destroyed Thanet, which took them to Swatow.

BRITISH TUG HELD UP Japanese held up a British tug seven hours. The British Consulate protested. U.S.A. HOLDS THE KEY I AR EAST SITUATION AMERICAN INTERVENTION FEARED BY JAPAN LONDON PRESS OPINIONS LONDON. 22nd June. The British and French Press is stressing that America’: altitude is the key to the Far Eastern situation. Unless America officially joins Britain and France, Japan is unlikely to retreat from her demand that the Tientsin dispute be settled on the army’s terms. Japan fears American intervention because of her belief that British economic reprisals would not be effective unless America acted in concert. Writing in the "Daily Express,” Lord Beaverbrook declares: “1 have always taken the view that Americans are not deeply concerned in the European situation, and that it would riot be easy to bring them over the Atlantic for the defence of liberty. “But I am also convinced, ol a native

of that American continent, and for long a resident on the American boundary, that if war breaks out, Japan will have to face immediately the American naval forces, and all the strength and resources of the United States. The reason is not far too seek. Americans will not permit that menace to become a terror.” The London “Daily Mail” calls for firm Cabinet action. “Tientsin has been on the way since Japan asked for help in building a battle fleet —and built it with the assistance of Queen Victoria’s Admiralty,” the paper says. “It has been due ever since Japan decided that the little group of islands with a growing population should not confine its energies when there was an overseas empire ready to be conquered, i “The Tientsin crisis did not start at ; the end of last week. It started at the end of last century. The Cabinet is not thinking as one man on the latest 1 crisis. Such a challenge does not invite compromise. It must be met with the ■ firmest and clearest answer.”