The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-02-25
OFE|CLALSAT TOKYO
QUESTION VALIDITY
OF S7IMS0N CLAIM
Japanese Official Says Secre-
tary Displays ignorance
Of Conference

Tokyo, Feb. 25.-R)-A high for
eign office official after reading press
dispatches quoting excerpts from
Secretary of State Henry L. Stim-
sons letter to Senator Boran on the
Sino-Japanese situation today ques-
toned the validity OF Secretary Slim
sons assumption that Americas nav
al concessions in the Washington
treaty were predicated on guarantees
embodied in the nine-power pact.
The terms of the naval agreement,
he said, actually were completed at
the Washington conference before
the powers began a real considera-
ton Of Chinese problems and Japan
had agreed to the naval terms.
Japan. he asserted, accepted a 60
per cent battleship ratio early in the
conference. thereby. leaving the ia
panese delegation open to charge
Of having laid all their trump cards
down early in the game. Had Japan
wished to bargain naval terms
against matters embodied in the
nine power treaty, he said, she GER
tainly would have delayed agreement
indefinitely.
Displays Ignorance
"Mr. stimson displays an ignorance
Of the history of the Washington
conference" he said.
The views Of the japanese govern
ment regarding the applicability Of
the nine-power treaty to the present
situation In China, he said. were
presented clearly in paragraph sew
en- OF Tokyo's reply to the recent note
Of the League council and also in
passages in Foreign Minister Yoshi-
zawa's statement of Feb. 81, written
for the Associated Press, which be-
gan: fa
1T would be equally impossible and
undesirable to repudiate the WASH
ington nine-power treaty :. J" and
ending Ito face the facts is the first
requisite Of craftsmanship" This,
he said, represented the views of the
foreign minister and the government
in connection with the issues raised
In Secretary Stimson's letter.
The spokesman recalled that in
1927 the American and British navies
found 1t necessary to lombard Nan
king, despite the nine-power pact,
when Chinese Nationalist troops ran
riot in that city. Japan is doing the
same thing now In principle at
Shanghai, he said, and the only Diff
ference is In the scale Of the opera
tons.
Asks About Manchuria
He demanded to know how Japan
could have invoked the nine -power
treaty for protection of her rights in
Manchuria. and to whom she could
have appealed.
Certainly not to the Chinese as
signatories of that pact" he said.
I'VE do not believe we could have
protected our rights except by direct
action. Treaties do not remove ma
tons fundamental right to, act In
self-detense.'
As for the Manchurian issue, he
asserted, Japan Is doing nothing
there In violation Of the nine power
treaty, and he added Japan has no
intention Of infringing upon Chinese
sovereignty in the region Of shang-
hal. Z.
Tokyo, he said, contends that the
powers signing the nine-power pact
in 1927 hardly could have taken the
"naive" view that Chinese sovereign
" and integrity actually existed ct
that time.
The spokesman Il remarked that
Stimson appears to believe the Chin
ese stu are able to achieve full SOW.
ereignty and territorial integrity II
they are LETT to their own resources.
Japan holds . different opinion, he
said.