SOVIET WARNS JAPAN

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28802, 24 January 1959, Page 13

SOVIET WARNS JAPAN

“Target For Retaliation”

LONDON, January 23. (Rec. 8.30 p.m.) The Soviet Government newspaper. “Izvestia,” today warned Japan that in the event of a third world it would be a target for “nuclear retaliation bombing” if it concluded a proposed security treaty with the United States. It claimed that Japan’s present policy “is leading the country to an even greater—though slightly better masked—subjugation to the military plans of United States imperialism.” the American Associated Press reported. Written by a leading Soviet commentator on foreign affairs. Sergei Judryavtsev. the “Izvestia” article, according to the news agency, said: “The Japanese public is right in emphasising that the proposed pact would threaten Japan with being drawn into a war when the U.S.A; wants it and would turn Japan into a target for nuclear retaliation bombing as her territory would have United States nuclear and rocket installations.” The article made a fresh plea for a neutral Japan. “Latest facts show that the views expressed in the relevant documents of the U.S.S.R. and the Chinese People’s Republic in favour of a neutral Japanese policy accord with the views of the overwhelming majority of the Japanese public,” it said “A neutralist policy would strengthen Japan’s national sovereignty, and would enable her to make a worthy contribution to the consolidation of peace in the Far East and, consequently, to the lessening of world tension as a whole,” it said.