A form of temporary provincial government for the province of Kiangsu is envisaged in a proclamation issued over the signature of Mr. Ho Ching. president of the "Chinese Self-Government Association." The Japan's long-awaited reply to the United States protest against the bombing of the United States gunboat Panay was received to-day and is being closely scrutinized by the State Department.
After the reports of Lt.-Cmár. J. J. Hughes, commander of the Panay, &nd the Naval Board have been digested by President Roosevelt, State Department advisers will decide whether to communicate further with Japan on the basis of the facts revealed in these reports.
Well-informed circles here point out that the report of Cmdr. Hughes scarcely tallies with Tokyo's contention that the whole affair was a mistake, but since Cmdr. Hughes was incapacitated during much of the Japanese action, officials are inclined io place most authority on the Naval Board's report, preliminary accounts of which indicate that the Panay commander's account regarding the deliberate nature of the attack is fully substantiated.
The insistence in the Japanese Note on the fact that strict orders are being given to make a recurrence of such an attack impossible in future, and the statement that "definite specific steps" would be taken to prevent a recurrence, have been well received here, but it is too early yet to say that the incident may be considered to be closed on the American side.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.