Neutrality Pact By Soviet And Japan

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 87, 14 April 1941, Page 7

Neutrality Pact By Soviet And Japan

SIGNED IN MOSCOW

Guarantee Of Peaceful And Friendly Relations

(Inited I'ress Association.—Copvri^lit.—Tteeil. noon.)

LONDON. April 13

A neutrality pact was signed between Soviet Russia and Japan in the Kremlin, Moscow, at 2 p.m. to-day. The Japanese Foreign Minister, Mr. Matsuoka, before being farewelled, visited M. Stalin and the Foreign Commissar, M. Molotoff, and further discussed relations between Japan and the Soviet.

Under the pact both sides guarantee peaceful and friendly relations and undertake mutually to respect territorial inviolability.

Each party is bound to neutrality in the case of the other becoming the object of military action on the part of one or more Powers. Such neutrality must be observed throughout the conflict.

agreement is to be valid for five years from the day of its ratification, and it may also be extended for a furtHer five years, providing neither side denounces it a year before its expiration.

A joint declaration, under which Russia undertakes to respect the territorial integrity of Manchukuo, and Japan to respect the integrity of Outer Mongolia, is published simultaneously with the treaty.

M. Molotoff, the Russian .Premier and Foreign Minister, and Mr. Matsuoka, the Japanese Foreign Minister, signed the treaty, after which Mr. Matsuoka left for Tokyo.

Commenting on the pact. Prince Konoye, Japanese Prime Minister, said: "I believe it serves as a basis for rapid solution of various pending questions between the two countries," says a Tokyo message.

Political observers anticipate that Japan will now feel free to adopt a more aggressive southward policy, with a resultant worsening of Japanese relations with the United States.