On Wednesday the) following memorandum was sent from Mr. Goto, First Secretary of the Embassy, on behalf of Minister Tani, to his colleagues, and from Mr. S. Hidaka, Japanese Consul-General, to the Senior Consul to be circulated among the Consular Body:
During the campaign for the capture of Hankow, heavy fighting took place in the waters above Hankow up as far as the neighborhood of Changsha. Following the fall of that city, the Upper Yangtze as far inland as Shasi and Changsha, as well as all of the waters adjacent thereto, has become the zone of hostilities. It being anticipated that intensive fighting will take place in this zone, we desire io request that steps be taken to have all neutral vessels now in this zone take refuge as far up-Stream as possible Tt is requested that information concerning the positions and movements of all neutral vessels now on the Yangtze above Hankow as well as in the waters Adjacent thereto be given through the Japanese Senior Naval Officer stationed Shanghai.
While the hearty ce-operation which certain Powers have hitherto accorded us in our efforts to prevent the occurrence of "incidents with Third Powers is deeply appreciated, it is earnestly hoped that those Powers which have not heretofore informed as regarding thei vessels will, in view of our frequent requests, give us closer ce-operation in the nurture In the requests we have made in the past, information was asked concerning the positions of vessels "on the Yangtze above X point" And in view of the fact that there is now no section of China over which Japanese planes cannot operate, we desire to call attention to the fact that what has been desired is information of vessels in the "whole stretch of the river above X point," irrespective of the distance at which such vessels are located.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.