BRITAIN AND AMERICA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23931, 5 October 1939, Page 10

BRITAIN AND AMERICA

INTERESTS IN FAR EAST CLOSE CONTACT MAINTAINED (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, Oct. 3. (Received Oct. 4. at 7.30 p.m.) The Under-secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr R. A. Butler, stated in the House of Commons that hostilities on the outer Mongolian border (Manchurian frontier) were brought to a standstill on September 16 as the result of a truce between the Japanese and Soviet Governments. A new Japanese offensive had developed in the provinces of Hunan and northern Kiangsi, and was still being continued. There had been a distinct improvement in local conditions at Tientsin following co-opera-tion between the British and Japanese authoriites in dealing with the flood menace, and there had been a welcome diminution of discriminatory treatment of British subjects at the barriers. But the anti-British agitation has not ceased in Peking or in outlying areas in North China under Japanese control. The Admiralty decided to withdraw from service on the Yangtse the peacetime patrol gunboats, which, with a highly trained personnel, will be employed elsewhere. The British Government maintains close contact, with the United States Government in regard to common interests in the Far East.