SETTLEMENT NEAR.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 377, 19 March 1932, Page 1

SETTLEMENT NEAR.

Progress Made in Shanghai Parley. CHIN 0-JAPANESE AGREEMENT. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (Received March 19, 11 a.m.) RUGBY, March 18. At a private meeting yesterday at Geneva of the special committee appointed by the Assembly of the League of Nations to watch developments in the negotiations at Shanghai concerning the Chino-Japanese dispute, a report was made by the President, M. Hymans, who, it was stated, had been informed by Viscount Sato that a provisional settlement between Chinese and Japanese representatives for the permanent cessation of hostilities had been reached. A further effort to make completely effective the cessation of hostilities at Shanghai will be made to-morrow, when Chinese and Japanese representatives will meet at the British Consulate, Shanghai, together with representatives of Britain, the United States, France and Italy. The British Minister in China, Sir Miles Lampson, will be the British representative at the meeting. According to Press reports from Shanghai, the draft proposals provided for the Chinese troops to remain in their present positions pending a later settlement, and the Japanese troops to withdraw as far as possible within the International Settlement, a joint commission to be appointed, with national observers, to ensure a neutral withdrawal. The Chinese Government is understood to have accepted the proposals as assisting further negotiations. The reply of the Japanese Government has not yet been received. Meanwhile, Press reports state that the Chinese take exception to the form in which the third of the three proposals has been referred to Tokio, on the ground that it implies a revival of the proposal for a neutral zone.