Shanghai, Jan, 5.
Hitherto there has been no con firmation of reports received [Japanese circles in Shanghai to the effect that the Hankow. Municipal building and Customs House have been seized by the Chines mobs Jand that the British residents have been driven out of the Concession.
Nevertheless, private messages received from Hankow confirm that {the situation is serious. The British authorities felt that it was impossible to hold the masses of Chinese, who were in an ugly mood, without firing: this was the reason the Concession was left in charge of +|the Cantonese forces, The British Jauthorities believed that if the British marines were forced to land Jagain there would be an immediate crisis, necessitating the use of force fand evacuation. The force available iwas quite inadequate to deal the situation. Had it not retired it would in all probability have been overwhelmed with great, resultant danger to the civil population, According to these messages, there is a disposition in certain quarlers to regard the episode as having been stage-managed by the extremist section of the Kuomintang.—Reuter
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.