JAPAN'S REPLY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 17, 21 January 1933, Page 9

JAPAN'S REPLY.

TO LEAGUE INQUIRY.

Direct Negotiation With China And No Intervention. LONG SESSION ADJOURNS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 12 noon.) RUGBY, January 20. A further meeting of the League Committee was held to hear the Japanese reply to the committee's inquiry. This was as to whether, if the Japanese demand for exclusion from the conciliation commission of two non-member States, Soviet Russia and the United States, were conceded Japan would accept other clauses in the copvmitt,ee's resolution.

These clauses included a declaration that the provisions of the Covenant of the League, the Kellogg Pact and the Nine-Power Treaty must be respected, that a Conciliation Commission should be set up to conduct, in conjunction with the parties to the dispute, negotiations for settlement on the basis of the principles laid down in Chapter IX. of the Lytton report, and having regard to the suggestions contained in Chapter X., and that neither the mere return to the status quo in Manchuria, nor the maintenance and recognition of the present regime there would provide a durable solution.

The Japanese delegates to-day received fresh instruction, and their amendments to the resolution include proposals that the Committee of Conciliation consist only of five to seven members, that the committee should not intervene directly in the Sino-Japanese conversations, but simply give assistance when necessary, that all reference to non-recognition of Manchukuo be excluded from both the speech of M. Hyman, Belgium, and from the resolution, and that non-members of the League could be invited to take part in the committee's deliberations provided that the three points .are accepted.

After a long session the committee adjourned the discussion.