Moscow, Dec. 23.
Soviet-Japanese negotiations upon the difficult fisheries question were still at a deadlock today after the eleventh interview between the Foreign Commissar, M. Maxim Litvinov, ud M. Shigenori Togo, Japan's Ambassador to Russia, well-informed quarters asserted tonight.
During this latest meeting, M. Litvinov announced that his Government was ready to reduce from forty to thirty the number of fisheries to be closed to Japanese fishermen. M. Togo rejected this proposal, however. consenting to the closure of only twelve present fisheries and on condition that others be marked out in new waters, Among ten new fishery sites proposed for Japanese fishermen, three would be located in the Japan Sea, it was stressed in political circles here. These quarters pointed out that Tokyo was now complaining that the Soviets were trying to drive them out of the Japan Sea.
According to the Portsmouth Treaty, it was recalled, Japanese fishery rights in the Okhotsk, Behring and Japan Seas were formally recognized.
M. Litvinov. insisted during his latest interview with M. Togo that the auction system be maintained in the distribution of the. fisheries among Japanese companies, it was further learned tonight—Havas.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.