Want Alleged Murderers Surrendered; Uninterested In Two Terrorists From Our Own CORRESPONDENT
Tientsin, June 9.
The instructions regarding political prisoners sent to the British Consul-General in Tientsin, Mr. E. G. Jamieson, from the Foreign Office and conveyed to the Japanese Consul-General, Mr, S. Tashiro, yesterday morning by Mr. Jamieson, are entirely unsatisfactory from. the Japanese viewpoint, Mr. Tashiro told a group of foreign press representatives who called at his office yesterday afternoon, The instructions, Mr. Tashiro complained,. did not take cognizance of the Japanese memorandum demanding that four men, "whose complicity in the murder at the Grand Theatre of Mr. S. G. Cheng, Superintendent of Customs in Tientsin, has been established by the Japanese gendarmerie" and who are held by the British Municipal Police, be handed over to the Chinese authorities.
This demand lapsed at noon yesterday, and in view of its non-fulfilment, Mr. Tashiro declared, the Japanese military authorities were issuing u statement which might outline the measures the Japanese authorities would take to secure satisfaction.
The instructions relayed to the British Consul-General through the British Ambassador to China, Sir Archibald Clark Kerr, Mr, Tashiro revealed, permitted the handing over Britain Still Hopes For Solution London, June 13.
Describing the situation in Tientsin to the House of Commons today, Mr. R. A. Butler, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, said the Japanese view was that the British reply to their demands was "unsatisfactory." Measures, he said, had been taken to isolate the Concession, The situation, Mr. Butler declared, was serious, but negotiations were still proceeding. It was hoped that a settlement could still be reached.—Reuter.
Branding the British Concession as a "hotbed" of intrigues and conspiracies against the construction of a new order in East Asia, and the restoration of peace and order in North China, the spokesman said the Japanese were taking action to isolate the British Concession from outside as the "only alternative in the prevailing circumstances."
Apart from occasional light military lorries, with patrols from the Durham Light Infantry along the British Concession boundaries, which have been in evidence during the past few days, it is understood that further precautions have been taken in the Concession. The nature of these precautions cannot be ascertained.
The food situation has been checked up, and it is understood that there are ample supplies of flour.
While British business men view with grave apprehension the new obstacles to trade, in a situation which is already difficult, there is no evidence of nervousness among Britons. Rather are there signs of ire, coupled with a dogged determination to "stick it out."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.