Tokyo, Oct. 31.
R. Kenji Kodama, ex-president of the Yokohama Specie Bank and newly appointed president of the Central China Development Ca, in an interview here promised that foreign companies would be encouraged to resume their normal activities in Central China as soon as circumstances permitted.
Mr, Kodama is too closely in touch with the principal world money markets to expect foreign financiers to supply funds directly for the rehabilitation of the areas Japan has occupied in China, but as president of the new company he will seek to pave the way for foreign capitalists who are or might be interested in enterprises in the Yangtze Valley.
Foreign businessmen here and in China who knew him as the head of Japan's principal exchange bank. consider the choice of Mr. Kodama for this delicate task a happy one. It is generally believed he will sue-ceed at least in alleviating the hard~ ships under which non-Japanese concerns in Central China are operating at present, Although companies of all national-HWies are to be encouraged quickly to resume their businesses in the central provinces, Mr. Kodama said the war against Generalissimo Chiang, Kai-shek's government might ko on "for years." He attempted no in this respect, but his that Japan was In position the conflict for several years If necessary to eliminate Chiang, the Kuomintang Party and the Chinese Communists, who here are con sidered the chief instigators of anti-Japanese sentiment in China,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.