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Show SEIZED CRAFT RELEASED VUIl BAIuiERFLO Violation of Foreign Rights Admitted by Tokio SHANGHAI, Dec. 1 (UP) Japanese authorities returned the American-owned tug, Feit-ing Feit-ing today, and formally apologized. apolo-gized. Vice Admiral Klyoshu Hasegawa, commander-in-chief of the Japanese third fleet, made the apology to Rear Admiral Ad-miral Harry I. Yarnell, commander com-mander of the United State Asiatic fleet, and United State Consul Clarence X. Gauss. Taraen bad protested to Jape- , neee authorities yeaterday wheel the tug, uioueity of the William Hunt internets in the tar eaat, was hijacked Irani He bees at the Kin Leo-Yuan wharf in the French aeneoaslsa). The Japanese naval party ripped .. the American flag from Its stand . ard and threw it Into the Wbenfpo , river: .. - ' The Japanese. alea returned two r Italian-owned tus which they had appropriated along with the Felting. Fire Offer Mused Hasegawa first offered te return the tufa If the United States and Italian authorities went to the Japanese Japa-nese base down the Wbangpos after them. Rear Admiral Yarnell refused, aad the Italian officials followed his example. ex-ample. He demanded that the Japanese Jap-anese return the Felting to Us berth et the Kin Lee-Quaa wharf, which Hasegawa finally agreed te do. American naval and marine officials offi-cials were not present when the lug waa brought back, but officials of the William Hunt eempaay and a group of Americana were there. Italian naval authorities also were present. The Hunt employe had recovered the Felling's flag from the river and were prepared te hoist It But the Jepaneee already had hoisted new American and Italian flags oa the confiscated tugs, apparently having obtained them elsewhere. Fall Apology Oivea It wss the first time during the entire Chinese-Japanese war, that a foreign power had obtained full Japanese recognition of any principle princi-ple It fek the Japanese had violated. Return of the vessels greatly amused several hundred Chinese coolies at the wnarfside or perched on earn pens offshore. Without smiling, the Japanese sailors left the tugs and returned to their own vessel. A polite, mustachioed mus-tachioed Japanese consular polios officer approached Hunt and they shook hands. They conversed m Japanese, but what they said was not learned. After some confusion, It developed that the consular officer wasted a receipt for the tug. Hunt reached into his pocket for a calling card and scribbled on it the equivalent of "Received, one tug." The officer obtained similar receipts -from the Italian authorities. The Hunt interests issusd this statement: "Our steam launch has been returned re-turned by the Japanese naval authorities. au-thorities. We are gratified and appreciative ap-preciative of the manner in which the mistake has been corrected." Foreign diplomatic observers said the statement afforded the Japar neee a means of "saving face," traditionally tra-ditionally essentially In the far east. A considerable delay followed Yemen's ..dsmand that the tug be returned to its wharf. Japanese tugs and warships maneuvered man-euvered for some time alongside the Japanese consulate. Then, suddenly, sud-denly, the Japanese flags were low- . ered from the mast of the confia- . cated tugs and the American and Italian flags substituted. Botne observers ob-servers believed the delay was caused by difficulty in obtaining the foreign flags. . It waa understood that Yaraeir protest used strong terms. Observers believed that the Unit (CeaUpnae Para aBSbt (Col nana efsij Tokio Apologizes to U. S. EorFlag,-Boat Incident V . y (Continued from Pes One) ed States would be unable to tolerati a situation "in which the Japanese will decide what is American and what is not" Unofficial sources refuted the Japanese allegation that the ship . warn aarmil hy th Chines, govern. ment and pointed out that all shares of the original owners, the China Merchants1 Steam Navigation cum-pany, cum-pany, were privately owned, although al-though the government currently had been assisting in it reorganization reorgani-zation because it had suffered financial finan-cial difficulties. The Felting was registered under American ownership a month prior to the outbreak of hostilities and was acquired by it American owners own-ers in receivership proceedings. Ownership Questioned Earlier a Japanese naval spokesman spokes-man had Issued a statement saying that the tuga seized yesterday which "purportedly" were Italian and American, actually were the property prop-erty of the Chine government Additional detains of the seizure were furnished by R. N. Foxx of Pontypool. Monmouthshire, Eng., the wbarl manager, ; "I was attending the berthing of an Incoming ship," he said, "when an unknown Japanese tug loaded with Japanese naval officers pulled up. They ordered seamen aboard the American tug Haitung, which was on the outside of the Feitlng, to move in order to permit the Felling's Fel-ling's removal. "The Chinese seamen argued, whereupon the Japanese boarded the Haitung and forced its removal. They then boarded the Feiting. "Both vessels were flying the American flag. Flag Thrown In River "The Japanese pulled down the sign of ownership and threw it at a Feiting crew man, who fled to the Haitung. 'Then they lowered the United States flag and, either intentionally or accidentally, threw it into the Whangpoo. They made no attempt to recover It "Then they hoisted the Japanese flag and sailed off after saying that they would return soon for the Haitung." NANKING, Dec. 1 Upi A Japanese Japa-nese drive toward Wuhu, Yangtze river port 60 miles southwest of Nanking, threatened today to bottle up thousands of Chinese troops defending de-fending the nation's capital May Stake AU Chinese commanders were expected ex-pected to disclose soon whether they will follow advice of foreign mill- ' tary experts and save a dozen of their strongest divisions by immediate imme-diate withdrawal or stake all on a finish fight lust outside the cltv UAHKy-V VAKN&U. His demands obeyed river craft would be at the mercy of Japan's warplane. Japanese were advancing steadily from the east and retreat to the south would be cut off if Wuhu fell into Japanese hands. Retreat Imperiled Until today, when the Japanese advance on Wuhu and Nanking became be-came more threatening, it had been thought that Chinese could retreat to the southwest, enabling Japanese Japa-nese to capture Nanking without a decisive battle. The retreat could have been covered by a stand at the semicircular defenses some 30 mile east of the city. As the zero hour approached, a committee of American and other foreign residents went ahead with organization of a neutral safety zone in Nanking despite the failure of Japanese authorities to reply to a request th.V neutrality of the area be respect :t" walls. Retreat under fire would be virtually vir-tually Impossible across the broad Yangtze, north and west of Nanking. Nan-king. There are no bridges and |