Seizure of Furniture is Denied "With a view to cleaning out the war-torn areas, the Japanese forces are now engaged in tidying up various scenes of hostilities in the vieing ty of Shanghai," a Japanese naval spokesman told' foreign press correspondents on Feb. 4.
Asked whether scrap-iron_ was Jatso collected in the "tidying-up" process, the spokesman said it was, ut the material collected was only in places which the Chinese troops had occupied and where they offered resistance. The spokesman said that when he said that such material was "disposed of," he meant confiscated.
Furniture Taken The spokesman was then asked whether the materials collected also included furniture and household goods. 'The places now being cleared. hho said, were areas which had been destroyed by fire and there, therefore could not be any furniture' to collect.
When it was pointed out that a Japanese military truck, the licence number and make of which was given, hud been seen removing blackwood furniture from a point at the corner of Chaoufoong and East [Seward Roads on Monday and Tuesday, the spokesman said—
"The fact that that property was being removed does not mean it was being seized; it may have been removed to anoticr place for storage:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.