(Incorporated in Hongkong) on Punitive Move (Continued from pogo 9)
Mr, Hirota, replying to interpellations, pointed out that "several great Chinese statesmen have been assassin nated in the past three years simply because of their appreciative understanding of Japan,"
Despite such an atmosphere in China, Mr, Hirota declared, he hoped to create a situation favourable for a Sino-Japanese rapprochement by making China understand that Japan has no intention of bringing pressure to bear upon China nor of taking sway China's territory.
The parliamentarians heard Gen. Sugiyama's extended report on the situation in North China armed with maps supplied by the War Office.
The anti-Japanese movement in North China, Gen. Sugiyama declared. has its roofs in the "positive anti-Japanese policy of the Nanking Government and national overconfidence in China's strength.
The latter, he said, was caused by the unification of the country and a strengthening of the war machine, and especially of its air branch.
The recent incidents in North China, the War Minister went on, were nothing but a manifestation of China's anti-Japanese attitude.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.