JAPANESE NOTES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 May 1939, Page 6

JAPANESE NOTES

ADDRESSED TO ITALY & GERMANY SCOPE OF ANTI-COMINTERN PACT. MILITARY ENGAGEMENTS ONLY AGAINST RUSSIA. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. PARTS, May 7.. The Havas Agency from Tokio says that the Japanese Foreign Minister, Mr Arita, Ims sent Notes to Italy and Germany proposing defensive agreements in the nature of mutual assistance pacts against aggression rather than true military alliances. The Notes say that Japan is prepared to undertake military engagements for defence against Russia in the Far East, but refuses to be dragged in elsewhere in the world. The Notes contain the substance of the instructions cabled to the Japanese. Ambassadors in Rome and Berlin on the eve of the meeting in Rome yesterday between Count Ciano and Herr von Ribbentrop, Italian and German Foreign Ministers. Speaking at a meeting of the International Affairs Association yesterday, Mr Arita reaffirmed Japan’s faith in the anti-Comintern Pact, but declared that Japan’s imperial “way” differed both from democracy and totalitarianism. He added that Japan would never use the anti-Comintern Pact to make an enemy of any country. Her policy remained independent. She had no intention of driving third Powers from China, realising that it would be practically impossible. BRITISH PROTEST BOMBING OF CONSULATE AT CHUNGKING. AN UNACCEPTABLE EXCUSE. LONDON, May 6. The British Ambassador ? in Tokio, Sir Robert Craigie, has protested against the bombing of the British consulate in Chungking on Thursday. He pointed out the “gravity of the Japanese action” and declared that the excuse that an anti-aircraft battery was nearby was “entirely unacceptable.” It is announced officially from Shanghai that several bombs dropped on the Consulate and in the compound during the raid on Chungking. Twentyfive Chinese who were sheltering.there were killed and 50 wounded.

A Tokio message says that the official spokesman expressed regret for the bombing of consulates in Chungking but contended that the pilots had sighted military objectives. The staffs of the British Embassy and of the Consulate have now evacuated their quarters and are across the river. A. German woman was killed while . rushing into the German Consulate, which was not damaged. Casualties in the raid oh Thursday over Chungking and in the resultant fires, are now estimated at 500. Th* fires are still raging. On Friday the Japanese flew over the city dropping cigarettes.