WAR FOOTING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22892, 22 November 1937, Page 9

WAR FOOTING

TOKIO GENERAL STAFFS

ITALIAN SUGGESTION

ANTI-RED CO-OPERATION By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received November 21, 5.5 p.m.) TOKIO, Nov. 20 Imperial headquarters have been established with the object of placing the General Staffs on a war footing for full-scale operations. It is declared that this is not the precursor of war. The Italian Ambassador to China called on General Matsui, at Shanghai, who was warmly appreciative of Italy's goodwill to the Japanese Army. The Ambassador suggested that Italy should fight hand in hand with Japan for the sake of the anti-Communist front. The Foreign Office asserts that arms to China are being transhipped through Hongkong, including some from IndoChina. It is admitted that some were pre-war contracts.

REBUFFED IN ROME MISSION FROM CHINA MUSSOLINI'S ADVICE ITALO-GERMAN MEDIATION (Received November 21, 5.5 p.m.) ROME, Nov. 20 A highly placed official reveals that an official Chinese mission, headed by Chen Kuo-fu, has gone to Brussels after discouraging interviews with Signor Mussolini and Count Ciano, at which they sought a more impartial Italian attitude toward China.

Instead Signor Mussolini suggested that China was not able to resist the overwhelming Japanese strength and he counselled Italian and German mediation in which the conditions should have as a precedent the Chinese recognition of Manchukuo as independent of North China.