Tokyo. Dec, 25, The Japanese press to-day printed an "expurgated version of the reply sent by the Japanese. Government t0 'America's note. of protest concerning the bombing and sinking of the USS, feanay. American reactions to the Japanese reply, which have been iiven™ much' "publicity throughout Japan, are typified in a headline in Who "pan "Times: " "Washington [Pleased By Japanese Reply On Panay Congressional leaders approve the American reply to the Japanese note, Senator Elbert D. Thomas, Demo-Jerat of Utah, said, "When mistakes Jand blunders are committed, they can never be completely" righted; and when notes are indulged in, they can never be completely satisfactory, but feonsidering all factors, we will have fo accept the notes as satisfactory.'
One immediate reaction to. the bombing, observers believed, would be defeat of the Ludlow Resolition providing for approval of the nation's Volers on declarations of war, This Jmeasure, which admittedly stood a Jgood chance of enactment prior the Panay incident, was now almost certain (0 be defeated, Senator Arthur Capper, Republican of Kansas, a notable pacifist, said he believed the United States should accept the Japanese apology bait added that "the bombing was un-Justiflable and without provocation.
+... The altitude of the Japanese forces has been intolerable."
The Panay incident, Senator Capper said, should not cause side-track-Ing of the Ludlow Resolution but, if It is adopted, it should be promptly jpplemented with machinery en-fabling a prompt decision on the war issue, The "Washington Star," in its leading editorial to-day," declared. that report by Lieutenant-Commander J. J. Hughes, captain of the USS. Panay, makes it impossible for the Japanese convincingly to dispute the fact that the attack on the gunboat was promediated and unprovoked.
"Tt was more than an act of war; the editorial said. "It bore far great-for resemblance to piracy."
Commenting on the Japanese note, the "Siar" said it "may slice to close an ugly incident in a technical and diplomatic sense, but it will not strike the American people as either honourable or at all commensurate withthe magnitude of the misdemes-"The Government and the people of the United States did not dream
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.