SHORT-LIVED STIR

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 104, 26 January 1933, Page 9

SHORT-LIVED STIR

Japanese Submarine Bases in Pacific ALLEGATION AND DENIAL (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) London, Jan. 24. e A stir was caused by publication of a statement that the report of the Mandates Commission, which is being presented to the League of Nations Council, deals with startling allegations that Japan has spent £lOO,OOO in the preparation of submarine bases at the Pelew and Marianne Islands. The stir was short-lived. The Mandates Commission accepted the Japanese delegates’ statement that the Government ha.. no intention of establishing a base in the mandated islands. The scare apparently arose out of an article in a Geneva journal. From its Geneva correspondent, the “Daily Herald,” which is bitterly antagonistic to Japan, published the grave suggestion that the League of Nations and America were disturbed over reports that Japan was secretly preparing submarine bases at the Marianne and Pelew Islands, held under a mandate forbidding fortification. Meanwhile, it was said, the Japanese had forbidden unauthorised visitors to approach the new harbours. The report was shown to Mr. Stanley Bruce. Australian Minister in London, who quoted an extract from the minutes of the Permanent Mandates Commission showing that a similar rumour was Investigated last year by a commission, which noted that the Japanese delegates’ denial was later confirmed by their Government’s statement that Japan had never contemplated a naval base in islands under mandate. -