Asked by correspondents whether Japan was using force against the British and French Concessions and whether the right of conquest gave a legal basis for Japan's action, the spokesman replied that Japan was not using force nor invoking the right of conquest.
Japan was invoking only the right of self-defence, he stated, in isolating the concessions in an effort to safeguard peace and order in North China.
"The Japanese authorities should take whatever measures are necessary for a prolonged closing of the British Concession with a determination to bring strong pressure to bear on the area," the Tokyo "Nichi-Nichi" one of the leading newspapers in the capital, declared in an editorial today.
Other dailies published editorials upbraiding the British authorities for their "arrogant attitude."
"The concessions in China, forming bases for movements against Japan and the new regimes" the "Nic! Nichi" said, "due to the British egoisti policies of maintaining the old order, have continued their existence as hotbeds of anti-Japanese terrorists and centres for disturbing political and economic policies of the new regimes and for providing funds to Communist troops.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.