It was aero reported yesterday that the Japanese authorities had insisted upon the registration under them of all third party vessels using the Yangtze. This, it was stated, would a serious divergence of opinions, a problem which the nego-fiaters representing third party Powers were trying to solve. The registration of foreign shipping, if carried out would virtually bring all vessels using the river under official Japanese control.
Although no information was given in the reports as to how the registration would be carried out, it was learnt that one of the conditions would be that the Japanese authorities would require all foreign steamers to hoist the Japanese flag from Kiangyin upwards. This was stated tp be the thorny point of the discussions and that an agreement would have to be reached before the river was opened.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.