Poking June 30.
Local reaction to the signing of the through trame "agreement has "been slight, so. slight in fact, that it is hot molleeable. 'There has not been time' for much press comment, but any case newspapers here and in Tientsin are $0 careful of the auth= rity of the censor that it Is very Goubtful if they will ever frankly reveal general sentiment towards the event.
"AS far as the masses in the north are concerned, their, attitude is one of apathy, if not complete indifferfence, Those of the population having family connections, in' Manchoukuo, glad, inasmuch as they believe that rail communication will be followed by Postal relations, and a re-fur. to the good old Postal Remittance system.
Considerable credit must be given to" the. negotiators, however, who throughout denied in so emphatic a manner that "any negotiating was foing on. The proceedings had been 0 dragged out that interest waned, fand when the announcement of the record was made, it reached a public that had lost all' interest in a question, which two months ago, was the subject of considerable discussion On. the Chinese side there is the insistence that the whole matter was purely' one of technical concern, and that the arrangement does not im any way enter the sphere of polities or diplomacy. The Japanese have. contented themselves with expressing the hope that the agreement would ead tora furtherance: of friendly relations between China and Japan.
Japanese Impatience This brief expression of the Japa nnese_was, however, coupled with a statement to the effect that "this The Customs problem has been made by the Chinese authorities for the establishment of barriers to the feast, for the road from Kupeikou south lies wide open. Even to the west, supervision is only efficient where it is in the hands of the [Chinese Maritime Customs operating jas they do at Shanhaikwan. At river tages on the Luan on the Journey down from Jehol, it is a frightened Jand nondescript Chinese official who boards boats to ask whether narcotics fare carried. The question is the sum total of Chinese Customs or Tariff There is, of course, the knotty pro blem of the demilitarized zone. I has not yet been solved, and every attempt on the part of the Chinese garrison this zone with their specially. trained police has been foiled Jor thwarted.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.