Yamada, sectional chief of European and Asiatic Tientsin, Jan. 28.
Barbed wire fences surrounding the British and French concessions were electrified: this evening. This move, it is asserted by Japanese military authorities here, is not connected with any intention to intensify the blockade of foreign areas. Military officials point out they are reverting to the situation existing before August 20 last year, when electrification of fences was suspended because of floods, It is denied the Japanese plan to intensify the blockade as a form of retaliation against the abrogation of the Japanese-American trade pact. A suggestion that the action of the Japanese military authorities in Tientsin had been influenced by the Asama Maru incident is also denied.
An earlier communique stated the fences would be charged with electricity "because of the activities of japanese elements, who were sneaking through the barbed from the British and French ions into Japanese-occupied areas.
But in spite of denials of any tightening of the blockade, there can be no refuting the fact that the food question in the concessions is becoming more acute.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.