TALKS AT TOKIO DIFFICULT POINTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20001, 28 July 1939, Page 5

TALKS AT TOKIO

DIFFICULT POINTS

DISMISSAL CLAIMS ANTI-BRITISH CAMPAIGN lIONG KONG DECLARATION FIGHT IF NECESSARY (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Reed. July 28, 10 a.m.) LONDON, July 27. The Domei Agency in Tokio says that the Anglo-Japanese conference 10-dav reached agreement on the main points, although some difference of opinion exists regarding the dismissal of the anti-Japanese municipal employees at Tientsin and also the extradition of the four alleged Chinese murderers. A message from Tientsin states that the Japanese spokesman said that the progress of the negotiations in Tokio did not justify a relaxation of the blockade which would continue at Tientsin until Japan’s demands were satisfied. The Japanese did not intend Ip put down the anti-British demonstrations in the occupied areas. Twenty-eight British women and children from Tangku and Taku spent the night on a tugboat on the river at Tientsin. As a precautionary measure in view of tlie continued anliBriti.sh riots and demonstrations H.M.S. Sandwich stood by. Evacuation is not planned although the Chinese demonstrators say they cannot guarantee the safety of Britons longer than a month. Chinese Held Responsible Japan has informed the British Consulate at Tientsin as a result of the protest on Monday over riots that the local Chinese authorities are responsible for law and order, At Tientsin to-day for the first time since they were introduced in March of 1938, Japanese Federal Reserve Bank notes were not quoted at a discount in terms of the national dollar. This morning unofficial -quotations showed a reserve bank premium varying between 8 and 12 per cent. Shanghai reports state that Chinese irregulars have sent letters to residents around the British-manned western perimeter of the International Settlement demanding a “protection tax.” Several paid lip after which they received a written guarantee of immunity from further trouble. The “tax” is being used to finance irregulars. Hong Kong Difficulty A Hong Kong message states that the closing of the Pearl River by the Japanese resulted in the cutting off of fresh food from Hong Kong from Macao. The cost of living is rising sharply.

The Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Geoffrey Northcote, tald the Legislative Council that there was no ground for the sedulously-fostered belief that the Tokio agreement foreshadowed a weakening of British policy in China. The Council unanimously passed a bill providing for compulsory service of all British residents.

Major-General Grasett, the com-mander-in-chief at Hong Kong, in a statement, said: “Those .ill-disposed towards us are circulating entirely false rumours that we will not defend Hong Kong. Maybe this fortress will bo attacked. If so. we will defend the colony to the last man.”