Peiping, Apr. 22.
Japanese military authorities were the sole arbiter of whether or not the blockade against the British and the French Concessions in Tientsin would be lifted, Mr. Tateki Horinouchi, director of the East Asiatic Affairs Bureau of the Japanese Foreign Office, declared here today.
"Since the isolation measures against the concession, however, were adopted because the British engaged in hostile activities against us, I would assume that they will be abandoned as soon as this hostility disappears," he remarked, Mr. Horinouchi said he believed that a settlement of the 10-month-old Tientsin dispute was near.
"Negotiations with the French authorities on the same question, I believe, are also making progress," he added.', The policy of the Japanese Diplomatic and Consular authorities in north China towards the Tientsin question was believed to have been settled at a conference yesterday between Mr, Horinouchi and Mr, Yoshio Muto, Consul-General in Tientsin,—Domei,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.