NEUTRALITY ZONE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 9 February 1927, Page 7

NEUTRALITY ZONE.

FOR SHANGHAI

SUPPORT FOR AMERICAN PLAN

t)Y CA.BJj.fi—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT LONDON, Feb. 7. Cabinet to-day discussed the complicated, many-sided Chinese problems, but it is understood the foreign Office is at present unable to throw any further lignv on the precise' situation of the negotiations, with Mr Chen. Official circles wholelieartdly welcome the suggestion of the United States for a neutrality /.one at Shanghai. This is openly welcomed as a parallel policy to Britain’s and evidence that America, is satisfied with Britain’s purely defensive, aims, despite her appai’ent isolation in the despatch of a defensive force. The new American proposal, combined with the fact that she herself is accumulating forces as fast as the ships can arrive from the Philippines and Guam, is accented as evidence that the United States recognises the rightness of the British policy, in continuing the negotiations with the Chinese Government, but unswerving]v adhering to its determination to be ready, if necessary, to defend British subiects. Si fin or Mussolini’s declaration approving of Britain’s steps adds force to the official circle’s claim that other Powers are steadily coming into line to pursue a* similar policy to Britain’s, and it is noteworthy that only to-day the French Foreign Office se m i-offici ally intimated its entire concurrence ‘in the American neutral zone plan. .The French view is that the suggestion comes most appropriately from the United States, because she does not possess concessions in Shanghai and therefore stands in the position of greater detachment and impartiality than the European Powers.