JAPAN AND FRENCH INDO-CHINA

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 189, 8 May 1941, Page 10

JAPAN AND FRENCH INDO-CHINA

Trade Treaty Concluded

TOKIO, May G.

The Cabinet Information Bureau, coincident with the signing of the trade treaty with Indo-China, announced that the agreement provides for “most favoured nation” treatment and also bartering by both countries of their principal commodities. It is significant that the announcement did not mention rubber, which, it is learned independently, is not included. The bureau said the agreement provides for the export to Japan of rice, maize, coal, and .minerals, and the export to ludo-China of textiles and other manufactured articles and miscellaneous products. Provision is also made for the admission of Japanese commercial firms into the Indo-China Federation of Importers and Exporters, the participation of Japanese capital in agriculture, mining, and hydraulic concessions, and the establishment of Japanese schools. The ter.m of the treaty is 30 months, instead of the live years (hat Japan sought.

The agreement is interpreted as placing Indo-China virtually under joint Franco-Japanese exploitation, although morally the French retain sovereignty over tlie territory.