JAPAN’S REPLY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 December 1941, Page 5

JAPAN’S REPLY

ON SUBJECT OF TROOPS IN INDO=CHINA HANDED TO AMERICAN GOVERNMENT. “PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES.” LONDON, December 6. The Japanese reply to President Roosevelt’s question about Japanese troops in Indo-China was handed to the State Department in Washington yesterday. The reply was given to Mr Hull by Admiral Nomura, the Japanese Ambassador, and Mr Saburo Kurusu, the Japanese special enVoy. The official text of the reply is:— “As Chinese troops have recently shown frequent signs of movements along the northern frontier of French Indo-China, Japanese troops, with the object mainly of taking precautionary measures, have been reinforced to a certain extent in northern Indo-China. As a natural sequence certain movements have been made, among troops stationed in southern Indo-China. It seems that an exaggerated report has been made of these movements. It should be added that no measures have been taken by the Japanese Government that may transgress the stipulations of the protocol of joint defence between Japan and France.”' The reply is signed by Admiral Nomura.

The general view in Washington in regard to the Far East situation is that while the tension has slightly lessened as a result of the Japanese reply, there is every justification for continued Anglo-American alertness in the Pacific.