Tokyo, Jan. 27.
Japan was decided to risk a "frontal clash" with Britain in the Far East in retaliation for alleged British "interference" with Japanese policy in East Asía, the newspaper "Kokumin Shimbun" reported here today.
The paper said the recent Japanese protest to London and Singapore against the arrest and detainment of eight Japanese businessmen in Singapore last week on suspicion of espionage "must be regarded as the Grst step in Japan's decision to risk a frontal clash with Britain."
Britain, the paper said, "has finally unmasked its intentions to interfere with Japanese policy toward China and to conduct a campaign of persecution against Japan."
"Japan should immediately abrogate the Nine Power Pact," the paper said, "and support the new China government's demands for the abolition of extraterritoriality and the return of Hongkong to China."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.