Further comment on the bombing of the China Alcohol Distillery Company in Pootung on Monday was voiced by a Japanese spokesman at the press conference yesterday, who stated that the Japanese forces would not respect the rights of a third party, to wit, foreign interests who might hold mortgages on Chinese property.
"The fact that a Chinese firm had mortgaged its property," he stated, "would not protect the premises from being bombed. A mortgage differs from ownership and we cannot cone cede that a mortgage is tantamount to ownership. A mortgage does not entitle immunity from the operations of our forces.
Continuing the spokesman said that an English-language journal had stated that the property of the China Alcohol Distilling Company had been mortgaged to a British firm. Before beginning operations in that area, Japanese officials had requested H.M. Consulate-General to supply them with a map indicating British-owned property along the Whangpoo, There was ug mark on this map, showing that the plant belonged to a British company.
Representatives called a second time, according to the spokesman, and in response to their question, received a definite "No" that the property was British.
"Then we bombed it," he concluded.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.