JAPAN AND RUSSIA

Wairarapa Daily Times, 21 August 1936, Page 5

JAPAN AND RUSSIA

NO THREAT OF WAR REPLY TO RUSSIAN CHARGE. Press Association 'T’oioerpnn—Conyrigbt YOSEMITE, Thursday. The round table conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations to-day witnessed a sharp answer by the Russian delegation to the Japanese intimation that Japan maintained different peace policies toward America and Britain from those toward her immediate neighbours, China and Russia. The Soviet’s statement bluntly declared that “ force could not be resorted to. against Russia by anyone with any measure of success.” It added that the Japanese position “can be interpreted as justification in advance of war as an instrument of national policy,” and said that Japanese fears of Communism could only mean that she did not consider conditions in her own country very stable. Dr. Kenzo Takayanagi said that the Russians misunderstood the Japanese position. It was not a threat of war against Russia, but merely an admission of unsettled conditions between two countries requiring different diplomatic procedure from that employed with Britain and America.

(A cable published yesterday stated that the relatively academic tone of discussions at the conference changed to sharp realities as Mr A. Y. Alexander, headl of the British delegation, voiced a pointed warning that Japan, in her headlong trade expansion, might force several other Powers to combine.against her. The Japanese countered with a statement that Britain and America were essential sources of materials needed for industry and conflict with either of the two Powers was inconceivable, but, because of geographical propinquity, fear of Communism and other reasons Japan cannot look in the same light on China and Russia).