BRITAIN AND JAPAN

Southland Times, Issue 18835, 31 May 1920, Page 5

BRITAIN AND JAPAN

THE ALLIANCE. NEGOTIATIONS NOT YET OPENED. OFFICIAL OPINION AT TOKIO. (By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright! (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON. May 28. The Times’s Tokio correspondent reports that the Foreign Office sta es that the Governments at Tokio and London have not yet discussed condition'! (or the renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance although the time fer giving notice of abrogation or amendment expires in July. It seems to be taken for gran ed tart revision of the Dll treaty wi 1 be allowed to stand, and this confidence is apparently reciprocated in London. The official calm at Tokio strikingly con tracts with the atmosphere of distrust resulting from newspaper speculations in Japan and abroad. Critics in the Far East are particv.lcrly prone 'o overlook the fact that the larger benefits of alliance were never greater than to-dny. Abrogation would foster revolt throughout the Middle and near East and play directly into the hands of the Bolsheviks. Japan does not ob’ee': to the British dominions consulting their best interests but regarding the cabled report that Australia desires to be considered before a final decision is reached, it is felt that the Australian position could he made clear wi hout the creation of erroneous impressions that the country is wholly opposed to the Alliance. Similarly news from Washington overlooks the provisions of 1919, safeguarding Britain and America. This caused much heartburning in Japan but the nation is now reconciled to the limitation. That Japan greatly desires good relations with America is not gainsaid. There is widespread antiJapanese sentiment in China and Russia, the effects of which cannot be ignored.