At 1230 a.m. today, Mr. Davis, accompanied by Mr. John Alan White-wright, also a British subject, the son of a missionary, and the p: sent Secretary of the Tientsin Country Club, attempted to leave the British Concession at the end of Race Course Road.
Both men were ordered to take up their positions at the far end of a queue of coolies. They stood in the queue for 70 minutes, while other nationals, including several German friends of the two Britons, were permitted to pass straight through the inspection hut.
When Mr. Davis and Mr. White-wright eventually got to the inspection hut, they were not permitted to enter together. Mr. Davis went in first to strip naked by order of the Japanese. Every article of his clothing was thoroughly searched. The inside of his mouth also was examined.
Mr. Davis was then ordered to squat, to show that "nothing was concealed."
While the examination was proceeding, several other nationals passed through the hut, including one German lady well-known to Mr Davis.
Mr. Whitewright was treated in precisely the same manner—but he was subjected to a further indignity. being ordered outside to dress, his clothes being thrown out afler him.
Mr. Davis today explained to Reuters correspondent that his China carpet factory in the former German Concession required personal supervision; and that this forced him to enter that area.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.