BRITAIN & JAPAN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 July 1939, Page 6

BRITAIN & JAPAN

PROTECTION OF NATIONALS QUESTIONS IN COMMONS. . RATHER INCONCLUSIVE REPLIES. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 12.48 p.m.) RUGBY, July 3. Questioned in the House of Commons on the insults sustained by British nationals in Tientsin, Mr R. A. Butler, Foreign Under-Secretary, replied: “Until this morning, there had been no reports for some days of British subjects being subjected to indignities. Lord Halifax has not received any official confirmation of the incident reported in today’s Press, involving a young British subject. Sir Robert Craigie (British Ambassador to Japan) has been instructed to inform Japan that any deliberate ill-treatment of British subjects must imperil the success of the negotiations in Tokio.” The British Government, Mr Butler said, had no official confirmation that the Tientsin blockade was being intensified. Asked if Japan had submitted any evidence showing the guilt of the four Chinese suspects at Tientsin, Mr Butler replied: “I am not prepared to add anything to what has already been said on this point in view of the fact that conversations in Tokio are about to start,” Mr A. Greenwood (Lab.) asked for an assurance that these men would not be handed over. Mr Butler replied: “There is no intention of handing the men over pending negotiations.” Mr Butler also stated that arrangements were being made for the evacuation of British subjects who wished to leave Foochow. He understood that the foreign community proposed to remain at Wenchow, where there were at present eleven British subjects. Further proposals for the settlement of the Kulangsu situation had recently been made to the Kulangsu Municipal Council by the Japanese, and these were under consideration.