Tokyo, Apr. 24.
Confirming the statement made this morning by Mr. Y. Suma, the Foreign Office spokesman, that the lifting of the blockade in Tientsin was a question entirely separate from the settlement of the silver question in that port, because the former is a matter which concerns the military and the latter is of comparatively minor importance, well informed army sources told me today that the lifting of the blockade depends upon the British thoroughly revising their whole attitude vis-a-vis Japan and the Chinese.
The inference is that the Japanese want the British, especially in North China, to cease their friendly relations with the Chungking government and fall in with the Japanese views, if they want the blockade lifted.
It is reliably learned that the treatment of Britons and Americans in Tientsin has recently been much more severe than formerly.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.