Another incident regarding the passage of Japanese supply trucks through the French Concession occurred during the lunch hour yesterday, and although it was described by official sources as merely one of daily routine it conveyed to eyewitnesses a more serious aspect.
A long column of Japanese motor trucks loaded with supplies" end guarded by armed Japanese troops proceeded along The Bund about 12.15 p.m. and was stopped outside the Semaphore tower by French police on duty at that point. There was the question of passes about l'which the Japanese drivers and the French police could not agree, and the result was a traffic block in which Japanese trucks lined on both sides of the Bund outside the Shanghai Club and for some time traffic arrangements were disrupted while a large crowd of Chinese and foreigners watched the proceedings.
A "North-China Daily News" reporter learnt that passes applied only to 26 trucks but the column numbered about half a dozen or so more, and there was no disposition on the part of the Japanese to accept the refusal offered by the French police.
To reinforce the refusal barbed wire barricades were thrown across ihe French Bund and a truck load of police reinforcements stood behind while an armoured car was seen also in position. At one period in the discussions between the khaki-clad Japanese and the French police, spectators noticed a more threatening attitude when one of the Japanese dismounted from his truck and was seen in heated altercation with a French police officer and had to be hustled off by his comrades to avoid further trouble.
About 145 p.m. the French police gained their point and the trucks with proper passes were permitted to pass through the Concession but the remainder were diverted and turned up Avenue Edward VII where) it is presumed, they proceeded to their destination via another route. Barricades were immediately removed, the truck load of reinforcements moved off, and.so did the French inspector.
"Just an ordinary incident possessing no significance whatsoever," observed French police officers on duty as Bund traffic resumed normal conditions and the crowd melted away.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.