Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-11-30
18TH TELLS HOW JAP-CERMAN RUM0R
 HAS HURT NATION
Got It's Start from Interpella- tiOns of Diet in
 1916.
PAGE FOUR

Ioklo, NOV. 29.--tBy the ASSociat-
 cd Press .)-Viscount Ishii, formerly
 Japanese abassador to Westinghouse
 Japanese ambassador to Washing
 ton, asserts in magazine article
 published here that the reports which
 have been cirlulated in some other
 countries of an alleged secret alli-
 ance between Japan anh Germany are
 directly traceable to the interpella-
 tions which were made Tn Jne japa
 nese Diet in the winter of 1916. These
 jnuuiries were in relation to the Lon-
 don compact between the allies to
 make no separate peace with Ger
 many. It will be recalled that this
 was formed in the early stages of the
 war.
 Viscount Ishii says the rumor hes
 caused serious harm to Japan's war
 time diplomacy and has injured Ja-
 pans interests in her post-bellum di-
 plomacy.
 He points out that in the interpel-
 lations prominent members of the
 Diet contended that Japan had shoul-
 dered grave responsibility of no-
 separate peace at time when the
 issue of the great war forbade any
 forecasts. The Viscount, who was foreign minister when the, London pact was signed, says the Japanese cabinet answered these criticisms by declaring that the government had no intention whatsoever of conclud- ing separate peace with Germany. Adherence to the pact, ministers pointed out, was in consenance with article 2 of the Anglo-Japanese alli- 1 ance.
 Ut was but natural" writes the { Viscount Ishii. "that foreigners should be impressed with the notion that the Japanese nation was really opposed to the London declaration, and that Japanese had an intention to conclude a separate peace With the enemy, and even, perhaps, to form an alliance with Germany after the war.
 "Of course, it is the height of vio- Jation of international morals for country to betray her ally or allies and shake hands with the enemy !n the course of war, and yet history furnishes us example of such viola ton, of international morality as i'll the case of Russia in the Seven Years War. 1t is not unreasonable that foreign people should have been impressed with suspicion that the Japanese nation had a dislike for the non-separate peace pact and might any time betray her allies and shake hands with Germany when an avail ' able opportunity presented itself. But the ministry considered the Diet in more of political at tack on itself than as opposition to the London pact. Parliamentary at tacks for political purposes are ire quent in almost all countries. In Ja- pan this is an unfortunate tendency. l
 "The current of the tide of the worlds affairs now flows in one and { Ehe same direction and no country is ( any longer distant neighbor in these { jays of closer international relations. Every utterance of any individual, not only in parliamentary discussions put also at public functions outside { halls and in the col lmns of the press, is echoed and re- echoed abroad and very frequently 1t .eflects o. ninternational interests of he country, occasionally eliminating n the birth of wild and groundless { 'umors. The famous Germano-Jap- lnese reapproachment story is noth- i. ng but specialization of fabricat- d rumors and suppositions. I
 Viscount Ishii expressed sympa- ! hy with Marquis Saionji, who on his 'eturn from the Paris conference, re- marked with great regret that occi- | lentals ar eprone to compare Japan i . Germany, regarding Japanese as nation of war-like propensity and r trong military principle like the r lermans. The Viscount agreed with V Marquis Saionji in saying that this V of the occidentals f vas deeply rooted and that the Japa- i lese people should seek to remove it. V The government authorities, he de- g Jared, should pay more attention to t ho matter