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The U. S. State Department still kept more or less aloof from the Tientsin trouble, but Secretary of State Cordell Hull did say that he was "observing with special interest" the "broader aspects" of the international issue. In Tokyo, meanwhile, four prominent Japanese reactionaries petitioned the Emperor to "declare belligerent rights" in the "China incident"—in other words, to declare war against China. Such a declaration would, indeed, give Japan the right to blockade the Chinese coast, but it would also certainly force President Roosevelt, according to existing U. S. neutrality legislation, to declare an embargo on munitions going to Japan.
Skirmish. As an added flourish to the week's war dance, the Japanese Army reported further fighting between Outer Mongolian (Soviet) and Manchukuo (Japanese) troops and planes. Wild Japanese claim was that 61 Soviet planes had been shot down in three days. From Moscow at first came only a stony silence, to be broken early this week with not quite as wild counterclaims: 59 Japanese, and only 23 Soviet planes, had been brought down in six weeks. But Soviet-Japanese skirmishes are the rule rather than the exception in the Far East. The real bad blood in China was between Japan and Great Britain. Scarcely appeasing to the British was the Domei News Agency's explanation of why Britons, and few other foreigners, were being searched and stripped in Tientsin: "All people ... are dealt with according to their individual merit. Britons are typically arrogant." The quarrel had become so serious that neither the British nor the Japanese could give way without a decided loss of "face." Face saving can be a fighting matter east of Suez.