BRITAIN FIRM

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21157, 5 July 1940, Page 12

BRITAIN FIRM

REPLY TO JAPAN ROUTE ACROSS BURMA LONG BLOCKADE LIKELY (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) LONDON, July 4 It is reliably reported from Tokio that Britain has refused the Japanese demand that she should close the arms route across Burma. Advice has been received from Manila of the arrival of 1640 British women and children from Hongkong. The liner President Coolidge also arrived. The Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Japan, remained at Manila for three hours, after which she left for Hongkong. She is expected to return on Sunday with additional evacuees. The wife of a British military leader who arrived at Manila said the evacuation was for the purpose of relieving the food problem as there was likely to be a lengthy blockade. She said that information had been received in Hongkong from London that Britain would refuse the Japanese demands for the closing of the Burma arms route, and that the evacuation had been ordered to strengthen resistance against the blockade and also to strengthen the British hand in future negotiations, thus preventing appeasement similar to that which obtained in the Tientsin negotiations. She added that the British action was evidently planned in co-ordina-tion with the resistance to pressure decided upon by the United States, and emphasised that in Hongkong an invasion had never been anticipated. Japan and Germany It is authoritatively stated in Tokio that the Army is planning to insist that the Government must adopt a stronger foreign policy, based on Germany’s present ascendancy. The vernacular newspapers assert that the Foreign Minister, Mr Arita, apologised to the Prime Minister, Admiral Yonai, and assumed responsibility for the leakage to the press of his (Mr Arita’s) radio speech. It is also stated that the Minister of War, General Hata, representing Army leaders, after a series of conferences, presented Admiral Yonai with a statement disagreeing with Mr Arita’s speech, on the grounds that it was weak, that it misrepresented the views of the services, and that it was too conciliatory toward the democracies. Meanwhile the single-party movement was advanced when the Nakajima faction of the Seiyukei group voted for dissolution. The Army and the Foreign Office later jointly announced the settlement of their differences over Mr Arita’s speech. Nanking’s Charges A message from Shanghai says that Wang Ching-wei’s newspaper, the North China Daily News, accused the municipal council of “conniving in and instigating” the assassination of an employee of the paper, Mu Shih-Ying. The Propaganda Minister in the puppet Government, Lin Pai-sheng, accused the council of a “challenging attitude” for promising police protection to persons who were blacklisted. He said the return of the concessions to the Nanking Government was only a matter of time, and therefore any council with any sense would not attempt to challenge Nanking now.