Pacific Mandates Fortified

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 7065, 26 January 1933, Page 7

Pacific Mandates Fortified

Japan’s Conflict With the League

STARTLING ALLEGATIONS AS TO SUBMARINE BASES

United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, Jan. 24. It is understood that the Mandates Commission’s report is being presented to the Loague Council. It deals with startling allegations that Japan has spent £IOO,000 in the preparation of submarine bases in the Pelcw and Marianne Islands.

Japan holds these islands under a mandate from the League of Nations, they having formerly been German possessions. They are of great strategic importance in the Western Pacific, constituting bases from which Australia or the Philippines could be struck at. Japan has come into conflict with the League over Manchuria and has threatened to withdraw. In that event a very interesting situation will arise in regard to the future of the mandates held by Japan, SHORT-LIVED SCARE DENIAL ACCEPTED LONDON, . Jan. 24. The stir about the alleged Japanese naval base in the Pacific was shortlived. The Mandates Commission accepted the Japanese delegates’ statement that the Government had no intention of establishing a base in tnc mandated islands. Tho scare apparently arose out of an. article in a Geneva journal.