IMPROVED RELATIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22724, 10 May 1937, Page 10

IMPROVED RELATIONS

BRITAIN AND JAPAN SETTLEMENT AT KEELUNG Times Cable LONDON, May 7 The Tokio correspondent of the Times says the relations between Britain and Japan were given first place in a speech yesterday by the Foreign Minister, Mr. Sato, to 50 foreign . correspondents. He ascribed recent improvements to the settlement of Keelung leasehold questions The Minister hoped that the visit of the Japanese delegate to the Coronation, Prince Chichibu, would strengthen the' traditional friendship which constituted one of the main pillars of world peace. He assured the Soviet representative that the AngloJapanese negotiations were not connected with any question of treating Northern China as a Japanese sphere. INTERESTS IN CHINA NO FORMAL NEGOTIATIONS POLICY MAINTAINED British Wireless RUGBY, May 7 When questioned in the House of Commons yesterday on the negotiations between Britain and Japan, the Foreign Under-Secretary, Viscount Cranborne, replied that there had been no formal negotiations between the two countries about their respective interests in China. A number of informal conversations, however, had taken place in recent months with the Japanese Ambassador, which had as their object the better ordering of Anglo-Japanese relations generally. No concrete suggestions so far had been made by either side. In another reply Lord Cranborne stated that Britain had no intention of departing from its consistent policy of respecting the sovereign rights of China