On the eve of the Tokyo negotiations on Tientsin, local foreign quarters feared that' the Japanese an: thorities were contemplating the closure of the Hal River.
The belief was based on the fact that the Japanese army spokesman announced that the Japanese authorities wore instituting a stricter control of shipping because he alleged that numerous anti japanese agents were Teaving the British and French Concessions for Shanghai and Hongkong aboard foreign freighters, This announcement and the fact that there had been several river in-cedents-in the past few days led well-informed quarters to believe that the Japanese would announce the closure of the Hai River to navigation.
The Japanese spokesman admitted, However, that the Japanese to date have not arrested a single Chinese at the barriers, of the British and French Concessions because no. arms anti-Japanese literature had been found on any of the Chinese passing through the barriers,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.