BRITISH WORKER KILLED

Southland Times, Issue 23838, 8 June 1939, Page 5

BRITISH WORKER KILLED

JAPANESE BAYONET WOUNDS ATTACHE ACCUSED OF SPYING MORE RIGID RESTRICTIONS ON SHIPPING (United Press Assn—Telegraph Copyright) (Received June 7, 10.55 p.m. HONG KONG, June 7. A British mill employee, Mr R. M. Tinkler, died this morning as a result of wounds inflicted by a Japanese marine in a clash yesterday between strikers and Japanese bluejackets at Pootung, Shanghai. Mr Tinkler was admitted to hospital in Hongkew with three bayonet wounds in his abdomen, a head wound from a rifle butt and an injured foot. Two German and two Japanese naval surgeons operated while three Japanese sentries guarded the operating theatre with fixed bayonets. The British and Japanese Consuls remained in the waiting room.

The Japanese allege that Mr Tinkler fired on a Japanese officer in the mill.

A Domei news agency message to Tokyo from Kalgan, giving the results of the Japanese examination of Lieu-tenant-Colonel H. F. Spear, the British Military Attache, alleges that he was found hiding inside the Japanese lines and was sending, by a Chinese communistwirelessstation, messages to the British authorities about conditions inside the Japanese lines. It is claimed that Lieutenant-Colonel Spear was gathering information on behalf of the Kuomintang and the Chinese communists.

The Japanese demands for the extradition of four men accused of the shooting of a Japanese at Chengshikang have been rejected by Britain. Japan has withdrawn permission for the British steamer Fatshan to proceed to Hong Kong, on the grounds that the British are not respecting the AngloJapanese agreement that only passengers would be carried in Pearl river shipping. The Japanese have threatened a stoppage of all British shipping on the Pearl river. REPORTED INTRUSION BY SOVIET TROOPS JAPANESE CLAIM VICTORY IN FRONTIER CLASH TOKYO, June 5. Two hundred Soviet troops are reported to have crossed the Manchurian border near Hunchun. They were driven back by Japanese frontier patrols.