Tokyo, June 18, 'OPE that the Nine-Power Pact would be revised "in keeping with the realities of the Far East," was expressed by Gen. Kazushige Ugaki, Foreign Minister, during an interview with foreign correspondents stationed in Tokyo yesterday. The new Foreign Minister pointed out that the treaty had been signed sixteen years ago, while its "important provisions" had been violated by the Chinese.
Should a revision of the pact be under~ taken, it would have to be made in consultation with the various Powers interested in the Far East, Gen, Ugaki said.
"Where there is smoke there must be fire," Gen. Ugaki yaplied when questioned regarding press reports of French assistance to China, "The French authorities should know whether or not the press reports on that subject are true," he stated.
Mhe Foreign Minister noted that in spite of official French denials, the press continued to print reports of such aid.
In addition, the Foreign Minister said, information reaching the Gaimuc she tended to support the allegations contained in press dispatches. That such reports were not totally unfounded Gen. Ugaki stated, was shown by the confirmation of is-patches that a French firm had con-Gluded a contract for the building of a railway in southern Chine, The Japanese Government, he declared, was not "contemplating" the occupation of Hainan Island, but even should the island be occupied it would have "nothing to do" with the Franco-Japanese trealy of amity of 1007, 'The withdrawal of German advisors from Hankow was praised by Gen. Ugaki. 'The measure would deal a "painful blow" to the Chiang Kaishek administration, he stated, 'The strengthening of the' anti Comintern pact, he declared, "was "quite advisable' and its necessity is being felt all the more in view of the current situation.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.