Observers attached importance to Mr. Welles announcement to the press yesterday because it represented a departure from the State Department's policy since the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war.
Heretofore reports from. American consular authorities in China regarding Japanese attacks on American rights and interests usually have not been made public at least until formal protests have been lodged in Tokyo.
Observers recalled, however, that the State Department announced as far back as last December, after approximately 600 protests had been ignored by the Japanese Government, that conditions had developed beyond the stage of further useless protests.
Mr. Welles' statement was seen in some quarters as an indication that the State Department in the future intends to keep the American public more fully informed regarding Japanese interference with American rights and interests in China, The statement made today, it was believed, was consistent with the firmer policy adopted toward Japan since the abrogation of the Japanese-American trade treaty of 1911, Mr. Welles, it appeared, was replying indirectly to Japanese eisertions that conditions in China had been altered to such an extent as to, pave the way for a new treaty to replace the one abrogated by the United States,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.