PROTEST BY JAPAN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 February 1939, Page 7

PROTEST BY JAPAN

YUNGSHENG INCIDENT BRITISH ACTION CALLED UNWARRANTABLE. EXPLANATION DEMANDED. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day; 10.40 a.m.) HONG KONG. February 8. While Vice-Admiral Sir Percy Noble and Admiral Yarnell. British and American > ■ commanders-in-chief in China respectively, were paying a courtesy call on Admiral Oikawa aboard the warship Idumo, the Japanese sharply protested to the British authorities at Tsingtao against British action regarding the Yungsheng, demanding an immediate explanation of an “unwarrantable action,” hampering Japanese policy at Tsingtao, and requesting that there should be no repetition of it.

’ A message from Tokio on February 4 stated: —The Domei News Agency’s Tsingtao correspondent reports that after the Japanese had seized the tramp steamer Yungsheng on suspicion of not declaring a quantity of currency silver and bullion intended for the Chinese, the British cruiser Birmingham arrived, landed an armed party, confiscated the Yungsheng’s papers in order to prevent an investigation and would not allow Customs officers to board the Birmingham. The Japanese also seized two Norwegian steamers.