HANGING FIRE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20007, 4 August 1939, Page 7

HANGING FIRE

TOKIO PARLEYS TIGHTENING OF BLOCKADE RIGOURS AT TIENTSIN WASHINGTON PROTESTS AMERICANS MISTREATED (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Reed. Aug. 4, 10 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 3. A message .from Tokio states that While it seems that the Tientsin, negotiations .are hanging fire a meeting of the Japanese Inner Cabinet to-d'ay was to decide the policy toward Europe. The attitude of the Japanese army was .settled overnight at a conference at the Japanese War Office, over which the Minister of War, General Itagaki, presided. The Japanese naval spokesman at Tokio said that the blockade of the Pearl River would be lifted shortly, because of the completion of the military operations. Reports from Tientsin state that the blockade of the British Concession has been retightened. Each dairy is permitted to send in a. daily maximum of 100 bottles of milk. Residents of the concession on returning from shopping were to-day queued up and allowed to take in only a small amount of foodstuffs. Threat of Floods As a result of the beginning of the monsoon rains, Tientsin, among many centres in North China, is threatened with floods. The Hai Ho is rising rapidly and is only 3ft. below the ',-evel of the British Concession. Hundreds of refugees are already pouring into Tientsin. The dykes of .the Grand Canal burst and many nearby villages are inundated. The Yellow River flooding is expected to be infinitely worse than last summer, When hundreds of thousands of persons were drowned and 2,000,000 were rendered homeless. The banks l and dykes have fallen and are in dangerous .disrepair as a result of the war and 'the waters are rising in several provinces. Many Cases Alleged It was announced in Washington yesterday that the United States’ State Department had lodged another protest to Tokio against the mistreatment of American nationals in China. He said that he was without information concerning a list of 600 cases, compiled by the American consular authorities in Shanghai, of Americans mistreated by the Japanese in China and declined to comment on the report. The Japanese Embassy counsellor, Mr. Suma, is leaving Washington .to report to Tokio concerning the abrogation of the 1911 commercial treaty. Mr. Sumner Welles yesterday stressed, when • asked whether the American State Department had pointed out to Japan that the antiBritish campaign in China seemed to be growing into an anti-foreigner movement, that it had been the constant policy of the United States’ Government to steer its own course in the Far Eastern crisis. Censure in Congress In Congress yesterday yesterday Senator Schwellenbach praised the denunciation of the 1911 treaty. He said: "We more than any other nation in the world, are directly assisting ih the continuation of Japan’s activities in China. Were it not for the assistance of the United States, Japan’s Chinese campaign would probably have collapsed many months ago. . . The fact is that we are her most important ally. . . . There has never been, in the history of the world, civilised or uncivilised, a more ruthless, frightful campaign of conquest than that Japan has been waging in China for two years.” The Ottawa correspondent _of the New York Times says that the’former Canadian Minister to the United States, Mr. Herridge, in a speech today, urged that Canada should take immediate steps comprehensively to terminate the economic relations with Japan,

He said that there was no basic friendly association between the democracies, the English and Frenchspeaking nations, and Fascist Japan. Observers in New York point out that an embargo on war munitions from the United States would merely compel Japan to make purchases from Canada, thus nullifying the effect.