London, March 11.
In the House of Commons yesterday, replying to questions with reference to Japan's demands on China, Sir Edward Grey, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, said that he had received no representations from foreign government but that one or two Powers had made informal communications, As, however, the information in his (Sir Edward possession was confidential fajesty's Government had made no formal communication on the subject to any foreign government.
The opinions of the commercial and industrial classes in reference to the demands would be welcomed: some already had been received from experts on the commercial questions involved. His Majesty's Government was considering the demands with a view to safeguarding any British interests with which they appeared to conflict, He was aware of the importance to the Lancashire cotton-trade of open markets in China and gathered that the Japanese demands had aroused a certain uneasiness on that matter, but His Majesty's Government did not doubt that the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of 1905 preserving equal opportunities for the commerce of all nations in China would be observed.
Replying to a question whether, in view of the propaganda 1 China against British trade, steps would be taken to prevent British traders trading with Germans. Sir Edward Grey stated that the Trading with the Enemy Proclamations had been applied to British subjects in China, and it had also been intimated that transactions with Germans in China were not prohibited in the Proclamations but that they not degirable.—are Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.