JAPAN AND CHINA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22046, 28 February 1935, Page 11

JAPAN AND CHINA

POLICY OF PEACE "ATTITUDE fiIOST FRIENDLY" ASIATIC BLOC FORMATION SUGGESTION HELD ABSURD By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received February 27, 9.5 p.m.) TOKIO, Feb. 27 A Foreign Office spokesman, outlining Japan's China policy, said there was no possibility of Japan returning to the League of Nations, but it was absurd tp suggest that Japan was persuading China to withdraw from the League or to expel her European and American advisers. It was absurd also to suggest that Japan was making China participate in the formation of an Asiatic bloc in compensation for Japanese financial help to China. Such reports were entirely baseless. Japan's attitude to China was most friendly and Sino-Japanese relations were improving. " We hear arguments advocating the mobilisation of the signatories to the Nine-Power Treaty, asserting that Japan has violated that treaty, and also raising the. question of an open door in Manchukuo," he said. " Such arguments may be wilfully advanced to bring about disturbances on the peaceful horizon in the East and Asia. "We fail to understand the real motive behind such moves. We cannot but entertain a suspicion that those critics, while talking of the importance of peace in the East and Asia, and of friendly Sino-Japanese relations, are in reality desirous of disturbing the tranquility of the East and Asia, and are machinating to cause the estrangement of China and Japan. " Japan is ende&vouring to maintain and promote peace in Asia."