KURUSU’S MISSION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 November 1941, Page 6

KURUSU’S MISSION

REPORTED JAPANESE PROPOSALS SEVEN-POINT PROGRAMMEAMPLIFIED. MORE ENCIRCLEMENT TALK. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.! (Received This Day. 12.15 p.m.) NEW YORK, November 11. A diplomat at Shanghai has received semi-official advices from Japan that Mr Kurusu is carrying to Washington an amplification of Japan's seven-point programme, reports a United Press correspondent. In addition it is believed that Mr Kurusu will give an undertaking that Japan will not move southward if the British and American restrictions are relaxed. Japan will endeavour to end the fighting in China through negotiations with Chungking. Moreover guarantees will be offered for British and American rights throughout China. The Associated Press of America’s Hanoi correspondent says the Japanese Ambassador in Indo-China, Mr Yoshizawa, has stated that Mr Kurusu’s mission would have vastly important results for the whole Pacific situation and would dispel much misunderstanding on both sides. Asked whether the Japanese newspapers reflected official opinion when they alleged that the United States and Britain were encircling Japan, Mr Yoshizawa replied in the affirmative and added that that opinion Was widely prevalent in Japan. The Associated Press of America’s Tokio correspondent says a despatch to' the “Yomiuri Shimbun” from Harbin reports that Soviet frontier garrisons are strengthening their fortifications. Mr Kawagoe, a former Ambassador to China, whose uncompromising attitude did much to precipitate the China war, has been appointed adviser to the Foreign Office, and Mr Sato who was Foreign Minister in the four months preceding the outbreak of the China war, has also been appointed a Foreign Office adviser. The seven-point programme, published semi-officially in Japan, embodies demands, amongst others, for a free hand against China, the withdrawal of all American assistance to that country, an American recognition of Manchukuo and the removal of all trading and economic restrictions on Japan. JAPANESE SHIP BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN MINED. ON WAY FROM KOREA TO OSAKA. (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) TOKIO, November 11. The Domei News Agency reports that the small Japanese freighter, Shotoku Maru, is believed to have been mined and lost. The vessel left Seishin, in Korea, for Osaka on October 27 and has not been heard of since.