DECLARED BY HER FOREIGN MINISTER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 August 1940, Page 5

DECLARED BY HER FOREIGN MINISTER

East Asian Chain of Common Prosperity IN CONCERT WITH FRIENDLY POWERS AVOIDANCE OF SOME VITAL DETAILS (By Telegraph.—Press Association. —Copyright.) TOKIO, August, 1. The Foreign Minister, Mr Matsuoka, in a statement announcing Japan’s policy, said that the immediate aim oi the foreign policy was to establish “a great East Asian chain ol common prosperity, with the Japan-lMancliukuo-Chma as one of its links.” Japan was resolved to surmount all obstacles, material and spiritual. Mr Matsuoka did not mention the - xis, the democracies, the East Indies or the South Seas. “In concert, with those friendly Powers which arc prepared to co-operate Avith us we should strive with coinage and c etermination for fulfilment of the ideal and the heaven-ordained mission of our country—enabling all nations and races to me each its proper place in the world.” . . Before the statement was made the “Asahi Shimbun, in a forecast of Mr Matsuoka’s key points, said they would be: First, that Japan would take a strong stand against, countries aiding the Chungking regime and interfering with the construction of the new order in East Asia, and would make more intimate relations with countries co-operating in such construction; and, secondly, that Japan would establish a new East Asiatic zone “which will not be confined to the continent but will include French Indo-China and other South Seas areas Unit are closely related to Japan economically, culturally, racially and geographically.”