JAPAN'S TERMS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 155, 29 December 1938, Page 11

JAPAN'S TERMS

DEMANDS ON CHINA

THE FULL TEXT

ESTABLISMENT OF NEW

ORDER

The Consul-General for Japan at Wellington, Mr. K. Gunji, has received the following cable message from Tokio giving the full text of the speech of the Prime Minister, Prince Konoye, delivered on December 22, with reference to Japan's objective in China:

"The Japanese Government is resolved, as has been clearly set forth in its two previous, statements issued this year, to carry on military operations for the complete extermination of the anti-Japanese Kuomintang Government, and at the same time to proceed with the work of establishing a new order in East Asia, together with those far-sighted Chinese who share in our ideals and aspirations. A spirit of renaissance is now sweeping over all parts of China, and enthusiasm for reconstruction is mounting ever higher.

"The Japanese Government desires to make public its basic policy for adjusting the relations between Japan and China'in. order that its intentions may be thoroughly understood both at home and abrpad. Japan, China, and Manchukuo will be united by the common aim of establishing a new order in East Asia and of realising the relationship of neighbourly amity, comomn defence against Communism, and economic co-operation. For that purpose it is necessary first of all that China should cast aside all narrow and ! prejudiced views belonging to the past !and do away with the folly of antiJapanism and resentment regarding Manchukuo. In other words, Japan frankly desires China to enter of her 'own will into complete diplomatic relations with Manchukuo. ' "The existence of the Comintern influence in East Asia cannot be tolerated. Japan therefore considers it an essential condition of adjustment of Sino-Japanese relations that there should be concluded an anti-Comintern agreement between the two countries in consonance with the spirit of the anti-Comintern agreement between Japan, Germany, and Italy, and in order to ensure full accomplishment Of her purpose Japan demands, in view of the actual circumstances prevailing in China, that Japanese troops shall be stationed as an, anti-Communist measure at specified- points during the time'the said agreement is in force and also that the Inner Mongolian region be designated as a special antiCommunist area. "As regards economic relations between the two countries, Japan does not intend to exercise economic monopoly in China, nor does.she intend to demand of China Jo limit the interests of those third Powers who grasp the meaning of the new East Asia and are willing to act accordingly. Japan only seeks to render effective co-operation and collaboration between the two countries; that is to say, Japan demands that China, in accordance with the principle of equality between the two countries, should recognise freedom of residence and trade on the part of Japanese subjects in the interior of China, with a view to promoting the economic interests of both peoples, and that in the light of the historical and economic relations between the two nations China should extend to Japan facilities for the development of China's natural resources, especially in the regions of North China and Inner Mongolia. *•

"The above gives the general lines of what Japan demands of China. If the true object of Japan in conducting the present vast military campaign is to be' fully understood it will be plain that what she seeks is neither territory nor an indemnity., For the costs of. the military operations Japan demands only the minimum guarantee needed for the execution by China of her function as a participant in the establishment of the new order. Japan not only respects the sovereignty of China but she is prepared to give positive consideration to the questions of abolition of extraterritoriality ' and of rendition of concessions and the settlement of matters which are necessary for the full independence of China."