JAPAN WOOS SOVIET.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 261, 2 October 1940, Page 2

JAPAN WOOS SOVIET.

NEW DIPLOMATIC TEAM. LONDON, Sept. 12. Lieutenant-General Tatekawa, the Japanese Ambassador to Moscow, is expected to have the almost entire support of the Japanese Army, which, according to reports here, wishes to improve Soviet-Japanese relations; or at least to appear to improve them. The Tokio correspondent of the Times interprets Lieutenant-General Tatekawa w s appointment as an indication that the present Japanese Government, besides the army, ■ wishes to- improve Soviet-Japanese relations: He points out that Lieutenant-General Tatekawa, since his retirement in. 1936, has been politically active, and that he took part in the anti-British campaign -1938.-Lieutenant-General Tatekavva will attend to all matters of high policy arising in Moscow, while Mr Nishi, who at present is chief of the Europe and Asia Bureau of the Foreign Office,- has been appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to Moscow, where he will attend to diplomatic technique. The two will make a strong contingent.,

Informed Japanese circles in Shanghai report that Mr Matsuoka. has offered jtlie ; Japanese Ambassadorship in Washington to five persons so far, but that all have declinedapparently because of the belief that the Japanese Army’s actions would make success impossible. - The names of the five were not disclosed. The majority are not diplomats, but business men.