Semi-official circles here categorically denied today the rumours
clashes had recently occurred on wi F current abroad that several, severe i Siberian border between Red detachments and units of the Japanese and Manchoukuoan armies.
These rumours, it was declared, were spread by certain sources to intimidate the Soviet Union to yield in the negotiations over the fisheries question.
The same circles also denied that War Commissar, Marshal Klementii Voroshilov, lett the capital yesterday for the Far East—Reuter.
The behaviour of the Japanese troops towards the Chinese population has been somewhat mixed, but on the whole undoubtedly superior to that experienced elsewhere. There has been organized and obviously approved spoliation of houses abandoned by their tenants or from which they had been evicted. Robbery of money fiom Chinese pedestrians by sentries, who search them, has been freely reported and frequently substantiated. Reports of rape are not infrequent but nevertheless isolated. The Refugee Zone has been almost completely free from violence and reflects great credit on the Gendarmerie, who guaranteed its security. In this respect the situation is markedly different in Wuchang. There the Japanese authorities have not only refused to allow the missions to interest themselves in the welfare of refugees but, having failed to evict some 6/8,000 who had taken refuge in the large Mission compounds, they have actually resorted to the extreme measure of starving these unfortunates out by refusing them access of food or water. In the countryside immediately outside Hankow the tale is a much blacker one.. There is security for neither man, woman, child nor beast, and lurid stories are of frequent occurrence. From farther afield tales of destruction and spoliation are rife, and the ever-increasing stream of country-people into the, Hankow Refugee Zone from towns up the Hank River adds testimony to these reports.
Every Chinese is required to have an identity-card, ensuring him the right of domicile, and therefore his presence on the streets and free passage. The grant of such cards is normally but by no means always automatic, even to perfectly reputable citizens. In the case of residents in certain foreign-owned property it is known that cards are being refused to Chinese tenants, because the Japanese are anxious to obtain the use of the property for themselves. What-lever the need or the merits of the system, little good can be said for the manner of its execution The auhorities are simply not equipped to handle it with either speed or efficiency. The utmost uncertainty has persisted regarding actual requirements and general inconvenience has been the result.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.