Japanese mail censorship, should it be instituted, will not "in any way inconvenience bona fide private and commercial communications" of foreigners residing in Shanghai, a arose Embassy spokesman announced yesterday morning.
The spokesman emphasized that he was still without definite information as to whether or not mail censorship would be instituted.
"However, in the event that it should be established, it would deal almost exclusively with mails sent and received by Chinese," the official declared.
The censorship, if instituted, would be the outcome of "well-grounded suspicious" that the services of the post office, an institution at present under the control of the Japanese military authorities, were being abused to impede the operations of the Japanese forces as well as to jeopardize their safety "It is only natural," the spokesman said, "that supervision should be exercised to prevent such abuse."
Watch for Red Propaganda By "almost exclusively," spokesman stated in reply question, he meant that mai taining for instance Communist propaganda or any material tending to disturb the peace and good order of the areas under Japanese military occupation," would be subject to censorship.
All mail routes would be subject io the same degree of supervision.
"For instance, we could not pay ioo much attention to the Siberian route alone, for it is an established fact that the bulk of Communist propaganda directed at Japan in recent months has come by way of America with American stamps."
This fact, however, would not mean that American routed mail would be subject to special and unusual scrutiny, he said.
The existence of large foreign interests in Shanghai, in comparison to those in Peiping, would require censorship procedure different from that existing in the northern city in the event that such a system is instituted, the spokesman said.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.