Japan Accepts Pact

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 408, 17 July 1928, Page 9

Japan Accepts Pact

NO QUALIFICATIONS MADE

France and Italy Approve

(United P.A. — By Telegj'aph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) Received 9.30 a.m. TOKYO, Monday. A T a Cabinet meeting, formal sanction was given to reply to ■*"* America, making an unqualified acceptance of the antiwar treaty. The reply will be communicated forthwith.

A Washington message says the State Department announces that the Governments of France and Italy have declared their willingness to sign the proposed treaty for the outlawry of war. Italy sent a brief and concise Note signed by the Prime Minister, Signor Mussolini, notifying the agreement of his Government with the contents of the American proposal. The French Foreign Minister, M. Briand, wrote at greater length. He expressed the satisfaction of France that the proposed treaty would not restrain the nations from the right of self-defence. The other nations are expected to reply in a few days. A dispatch from Rome says: The full acceptance by Italy of the proposed pact for the outlawry of war was announced by Signor Mussolini. He said the Government agreed with the interpretations of the treaty contained

in the draft submitted by the United States Secretary of State, Mr. IJ. B. Kellogg, on June 23. FRANCE HAPPY TO AGREE France’s reply to Mr. Kellogg's proposal states that she is happy to agree to the new provisions of the preamble, which provide that all signatories must renounce war as an instrument of national policy, and those infringing the causes for national motives shall be denied the benefits of the treaty. The French Government also notes with satisfaction the explanations appended to the American proposals, by which the American Government re cognises the French contention that nothing in the treaty restricts or compromises in any way the right of selfdefence by any nation against attack or if the circumstances warrant recourse to defensive warfare. EARLY BRITISH REPLY British Official Wireless. Reed. 11.15 a.m. RUGBY, Monday. The reply to the United States proposal for a multilateral pact for the renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy will, it is anticipated, be sent on Wednesday. This announcement was made in the House of Commons this evening by Sir Austen Chamberlain. In reply to a question, he said the Government’s views had now been communicated by cable to the Governments of the Dominions and India, and he hoped to be in a position to hand the reply to the American Charge d’Affiaires on Wednesday. The replies of the Dominions and India would, no doubt, be published by those Governments in due course. In the meantime, he could make no statement in regard to them.