U.S. Peace Bodies Want Neutrality Applied Tokyo, Oct. 21.
After days of waiting, Japan has at last received an invitation to attend the Nine-Power Conference opening in Brussels on October 30. The invitation was handed to the Foreign Office at 1030 this morning by the Belgian Ambassador, M. Albert Baron de Bassompierre.
It arrived a few hours after the Association of members of the House of Representatives had presented the Foreign Minister, Mr. Koki Hirota, with a copy of a resolution expressing opposition to Japan's participation in the conference. The membership of the Association includes the majority of MPés, "In compliance with the request of the Government of Great Britain, made with the approbation of the Government of the United States," the Belgian Note Verbale reads, "the Royal Government propose to states signatory of the Treaty of February 6, 1922, that they convene at Brussels on October 30 with a view to examining, in accordance with Article VII of that treaty, the situation in the Far Fast and study amicable means of hastening the end of the unfortunate conflict existing there."—Reuter.
Diplomatic circles in Tokyo believe Japan will decline to attend and may ask for explanations on points in the Belgian Note. In declining, Japan is expected to declare that her action in China was taken "entirely in self-defence against Chinese actions of aggression," states Domei.
The Tokyo Metropolitan press, reports Domei, point out that the chance of Japan's unqualified acceptance of the invitation is extremely slim, especially as the League of Nations, which condemned Japan's actions in China, took the initiative in convoke ing the conference, together-with the United States, which openly declared that Japan violated the pact.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.