SUSPICIONS BASELESS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 291, 21 September 1935, Page 5

SUSPICIONS BASELESS

THE JAPANESE MANDATES.

(United Press Association—Copyright) TOKIO, September 19.

Replying to the discussion; of . Japanese mandates at the League Assembly the Foreign Office spokesman declared that suspicions regarding harbour improvements were baseless. Their purposes were purely economic, and civil as had repeatedly been explained.

The Norwegian delegate (Dr. C. L. Lange), drawing the attention of too political committee of the League to the tendency of certain, mandatory Powers to efface the. line .of domarca-' tion between mandates and possessions, declared that if this was accentuated it would constitute a real danger to the mandate, system. ‘ Energetic action was necessary, because it had been said that mandates were simply camouflaged colonies. Dr. Lange drew attention to the harbour and. other cbnstructions in the Japanese mandated islands in the Pacific. The Japanese delegate to the Mandates Commission had denied that they were a disguised form of fortifications designed for ,tho use of the Japanese fleet, and had said they were intended for civil aud commercial purposes. Dr. Lange, however, declared that these explanations were not convincing. The sums involved were greater than were necessary for civil purposes, he said.