The goods were en route to China when Japanese forces entered Indo-China last year and the American firms have not been able to move them out of the country since that time. The Japanese have contended that the goods were Chinese-owned and therefore subject to confiscation, rather than American-owned.
The American firms were ordered to hand over the keys by 9 am. today, but the Japanese moved to seize the goods an hour before the deadline after the firms had refused to conform to the demand. The Mayor of Haiphong immediately informed the Hanoi Government of the situation—United Press.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.