At the press conference yesterday, it was revealed that the Customs had no precedent for refusing to issue clearance papers to ships proceeding to certain Yangtze Delta and China Coast ports. The rules were to have become effective yesterday. The naval spokesman stated that he did not know if any ship was refused papers yesterday and it was his belief that no vessel would attempt to secure them unless she was trying to antagonize Japan.
In answer to a question, he stated that the Customs had the legal power to refuse clearance papers, but as far as he knew there was no precedent for such action. If foreign ships visited these ports occupied by the Japanese they would be "requested" to leave.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.