Tokyo, Jan. 1. was revealed ina statement: issued by the Gaimusho last night that Mr. Shigenori "Togo, Japanese Ambassador to" Moscow, and 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 1999, but provision has been made for the signing fof a long term. treaty sometime during' 1940, subject to the 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 AAsheries dispute between the two countries.
The Manchoukuo Government, it was announced, wit pay the last instalment for the purchase of the railway together with interest anda premium on the gold clause, Soviet Russia, on the other hand, has agreed to poy a sum of Yen 1,200,000, Which it admits is due under the original railway sale agreement, to Manchoukuo. Two thirds of ' the balance due to Soviet Russia will bbe spent in the purchase of Manchoukuo goods, the Gaimusho statement revealed,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.