REPORT CONFIRMED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 June 1939, Page 5

REPORT CONFIRMED

VOLUNTEERS TO PREPARE FOR MOBILISATION ESCORT VESSELS ARRIVE. BRITISH YOUTHS STOPPED AT BARRIER. « (Received This Day, 10.50 a.m.) , TIENTSIN. June 20. Volunteers in the British Concession have been ordered to prepare for mobilisation. The escort vessel, H.M.S. Sandwich, has arrived here an,d the escort vessel H.M.S. Lowestoft has cancelled her departure. The food shortage is acute despite the admission of a lorryful of vegetables. The Japanese at a barrier stripped and prodded five British youths. REQUESTS REJECTED. . NO CHANGE IN JAPANESE ATTITUDE. (Received This Day, 10.50 a.m.) LONDON. June 20. A Tokio correspondent of “The Times” says vernacular despatches from Tientsin state, that the Japanese Consul-General rejected the British Consul-General’s request for equal treatment for British and other foreign residents and for the relaxation of food restrictions. STATEMENT IN LORDS. NO NEW GROUND OPENED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.50 a.m.) RUGBY, June 20. Lord Halifax made a Far Eastern statement in the House of Lords today, but the contents did not go., beyond earlier statements in the House of Commons, including that of Mr Neville Chamberlain yesterday. INSOLENCE RESENTED AMERICAN PRESS COMMENT. VITAL IMPLICATIONS. NEW YORK, June 19. The New York “Times,” in an editorial today, refers to the insolent announcement of the Japanese garrison commander at Tientsin that the pressure will be increased till the British concession in Tientsin collapses. It adds: “Mr Hull's statement is timely. An unimportant incident has deliberately been made the occasion for. a direct challenge to the whole structure of British treaty rights. As a nation with her own treaties intended to safeguard substantial interests, we are bound to be concerned with the method and objective of the Japanese attack and the implications it holds for us.” The Washington correspondent of the New York “Times” says the State Department has exercised great care since the Tientsin trouble started to maintain a position in which it can act as the arbitrator if a friendly solution appears possible.