NEW FRENCH AND JAPANESE AGREEMENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 28 August 1939, Page 8

NEW FRENCH AND JAPANESE AGREEMENT

UNRESTRICTED TRAFFIC IN HANKOW LONDON, 26th August. The Domei news agency in Shanghai announced a new French and Japanese agreement restoring unrestricted traffic to the French Concession in Hankow', which has been isolated for 10 months. In Hong Kong the strictest censorship of Press cables has been enforced. It is understood that between 30,000 and 40,000 Japanese troops are strung out along the British frontier at Tientsin. Epidemics are feared in the flooded city. REPLY TO BRITISH AMBASSADOR A British Foreign Office communication to the Chinese Ambassador regarding the handing over of the four Chinese held in Tientsin stated: “There could be no question of using the accused as pawns or bartering their disposal against some concession to Britain. To hand them over to Chinese authorities elsewhere than in Tientsin, as the Ambassador suggested, is impracticable and unreasonable. They must be handed to the local authorities, which does not constitute recognition of the so-called provisional Government. The British Municipal Council in Tientsin for the past two years has been sending persons for trial by and executing warrants issued by the d# facto district court. The present warrant does not differ from many hundreds of its predecessors."