'We cannot but express regrets at the present attMude of the Nanking Government, which is not only' illegal but unfriendly. We cannot enter into negotiations for the conclusion of a new treaty under any misconception that the present Sino-Japanese Commercial Treaty' is null and void. The Japanese:
Government will "never cease to resist on this point so long as we cannot feel assured that there will not occur any deplorable affair in consequence of the illegal abrogation of the treaty by the Nanking Government. I am not, however, a position to declare at present what practical measures. may be: taken, though I am prepared for the worst."—Toho,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.