Mr. Ratcliffe said tha d arrived in Shanghai just as the question of the closed Yangtze had come into the news, The serious developments there hed taken place at a time when the attention of the British Government was absorbed by critical events near at home. Therefore the exchange of notes had not come until the policy had b: force for son month It for the speaker, a roving journalist ger in the Far East, to ions as to the most practicable way out of a puzzling end dangerous situation. But one thing was clear. The interest of Britain was identical with the interests of ell the western Powe indeed of all peoples. The Yangtze was one of the world's great highways. No one could believe that the vital interests of any portion of the Orient could be served by the river's continuing to be closed. Here was an urgent matter for negotiation and decisión. It would afford an immediate test of British and American skill in diplomacy at a time of exceptional difficulty.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.