JAPANESE AND INDO-CHINA

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23052, 21 June 1940, Page 3

JAPANESE AND INDO-CHINA

REPRESENTATIONS TO GERMANY LONDON, Jujie 19. The Japanese Newspaper _“Asahi Shimbun” states that at an extraordinary the Japanese Foreign Minister’(Mr Arita) informed the Priron. Minister (Admiral Yonai) and the Minister for War (Major-Gen-, eral Hata) that on the navy’s tions he had dispatched ambassadors? Mr 'S. Kurusu (the Japanese Ambassador to Belgium) and Mr E. Amau (the Japanese Minister to Switzerland), to negotiate with Germany and Italy “regarding Japan’s concern for IndoChina and expressing the desire that they retrain from any change *in French Indo-China of an unfriendly nature to Japan.’’ The spokesman at. the Japanese Foreign Office (Mr Y. Suma) clarified the immediate official position regarding Indo-China. He declared: (1) Japan regards herself as a stabiliser in East Asia and has so been regarded since the first Chinese-Japanese war and the period of the Anglo-Japanese alliance.. (2) Japan regards Indo-China as of parallel importance with the East Indies, and indeed as of added importance militarily as it is. the chief route for munitions to Churtgking, against which Japan is approaching the last stage of hostilities. It is reliably stated in Tokyo that Germany has reiterated to Japan assurances that she will not demand the return of South Sea possessions mandated to Japan. , A message from Shanghai states that the French capitulation has increased anxiety over possible Japanese action against French Indo-China. Diplomats attempting to confirm rumours that 100,000 Japanese are concentrated at Hainan. It is revealed that Admiral Shimada, Commander of the Japanese China Seas Fleet, inspected Hainan. The Japanese Minister at large, Mr M. Tani, is reported to have summoned the French Ambassador (M. Arsene. Henry) and protested against Indo-China’s acts in assisting Chungking. The Ambasssdor is understood to have stated that France was taking appropriate measures in the matter for Indo-China’s voluntary stoppage of such acts. A Japanese spokesman characterised the protest against French help to China as a final warning, asserting that the Japanese forces will be forced to take the necessary military measures if Indo-China’s assistance to Chungking is not halted. A message from Hong Kong states that it is reliably reported that all transhipment of gasoline and oil from Indo-China to the interior has ceased forthwith, apparently due to the complaint and Japanese demands.