BRITISH PROTEST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 June 1939, Page 7

BRITISH PROTEST

AGAINST APPLICATION OF WAR MEASURE VOLUNTEERS MOBILISED IN TIENTSIN. JAPANESE SAY BLOCKADE ' IS DEFENSIVE. TIENTSIN, June 14. It is understood that Britain has sent a strong protest to Japan, for applying a war measure against Britain, with whom her relations have been friendly. British .volunteer forces were mobilised in Tientsin yesterday evening, and a battalion of the Durham Light Infantry is patrolling the Concession. The blockade is hourly becoming more intensive, and business is at a standstill. Most of the Chinese employees did not attempt to pass through the lines to the concessions. A Japanese Foreign Office spokesman confirmed that a British proposal for a committee had been rejected. He said that control of currency was one of the principal objects of the block-

ade, and it was intended to confiscate illegal currencies. He added that the blockade was defensive, and it was not intended to take the Concession by force. The Chinese Mayor of Tientsin, Mr Wen Shing Tseng, in a proclamation declares there are no obstacles to hinder the creation of a new order in East Asia. The responsibility for the grave situation is entirely Britain’s for harbouring hired assassins. A spark may cause a big conflagration, and it is impossible to predict the changes in the next 10 days. The Japanese have stopped the entry of vegetables and the prices have trebled. Dozens of food-laden junks are lying on the river, none of them unloading. A British lighter was held up and examined but allowed to proceed.

UNFRIENDLY ACT PRESENTATION OF BRITISH PROTEST. (Received This Day 9.45 a.m.) TOKIO, June 14. Sir Robert Craigie has presented the British protest to the Foreign Minister, Mr Arita, against Japan’s war measure against Britain. He said Britain regarded the blockade as an unfriendly act. MARTIAL LAW PROCLAIMED BY JAPANESE. AMERICAN CAMERA MAN ARRESTED. (Received This Day, 9.45 a.m.) ' TIENTSIN, June 14. Martial law has been proclaimed in the city and on the Hai River. The Japanese military authorities demand that the British must cease protecting anti-Japanese Communistic elements, cease supporting Chinese currency and hoarding goods, thereby increasing prices, discontinue the use of unregistered radio stations and admit Japanese-prepared school books to the British Concession. The Japanese seized Mr Eric Mayell, an American camera man, who filmed the Panay bombing, while he was making news reels of the blockade from the International Bridge. The Japanese ignored Mr Mayell’s protests that the camera was on International territory. The British Consulate is endeavouring to secure Mr Mayell’s release. It is revealed that the United States authorised their Con-sul-General at Tientsin to sit on Britain's proposed committee of inquiry. MEETING OF CABINET SITUATION CONSIDERED. .LONDON June 14. Cabinet met to consider the Tientsin situation.