Tokyo, Jan, 1.
It was revealed in a statement issued by the Gaimusho last night that Mr. Shigenori Togo, Japanese Ambassador to Moscow, and M.
Viacheslav Molotov, Soviet Foreign Commissar, have signed a modus vivendi for 1940 in connection with the fisheries problem between the two countries. The terms of the new agreement are similar to those which prevailed in 1939, but provision has been made for the signing of a long term treaty sometime during 1940, subject to tne approval of the Japanese Government.
The proposed long term treaty will include the payment of the outstanding last instalment of approximately Yen 6,000,000 for the Chinese Eastern Railway (now the North Manchurian Railway) which was purchased by Manchoukuo from Soviet Russia. This question was a thorny point which had impeded a settlement being reached in the fisheries dispute between the two countries, The Manchoukuo Government, it was announced, will pay the last instalment for the purchase of the railway together with interest and a premium on the gold clause. Soviet Russia, on the other hand, has agreed to pay a sum of Yen 1,300,000, which it admits is due under the original railway sale agreement, to Manchoukuo. Two thirds of the balance due to Soviet Russia will be spent in the purchase of Manchoukuo goods, the Gaimusho state-mone. revealed,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.