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UNITED STATES STRIKES ANOTHER BLOW AT JAPAN WASHINGTON, D. C, July 27. The United States government struck a second major blow at Japan today, when Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau announced that a thorough scrutiny of Tokyos gold and silver shipments to this country would be initiated at once. The treasury departments action came quickly upon the heels of Secretary of State Hulls dramatic announcement that this government had notified Japan of the abrogation of the 1911 treaty of commerce, the basic document providing for friendly commercial relations between the United States and the oriental power. Secretary Morgenthau said, as a result of the treatys abrogation, the entire subject qf Japanese gold and silver imports would be studied. Preparing for still further readjustment of American economic relations with Japan, Secretary Morgenthau said the United States customs bureau had been ordered to survey Nipponese merchandise shipments to the United States. For the past several months, customs experts have been investigating allegations that Japan has been shipping gold and silver to the United States. By selling the metal in this country, Japan has acquired dollar balances and credits with which to buy vital war materials, such as scrap, aircraft and cotton. Department of commerce statistics show that net shipments of gold by Japan to the United States in 1938 amounted to 68,739,643. In 1937 these shipments were 46,470,005. Silver exports in 1937 were ,273,289, and in 1938 they were ,929,567.
