"Parallel with juridical arguments, jthe British" Government is making strenuous efforts for a speedy settle~ ment of the dispute from a broad point of view and in consideration of relations between Japan and Britain."
'Since the outbreak of the European war, he said, belligerent countries had Imposed extreme restrictions and ini-pediments upon trade of neutral merchantmen. This, he declared, had resulted in the frequent halting' and examination of neutral shipping.
European waters, he said, were the Jscenes of these incidents' and East Asia had witnessed no such trouble until the Asama Maru incident, Not only did this incident happen in the Pacific, he declared, but. in home waters. This fact, together with the forcible action of the warship against a neutral vessel yoing from tone neutral country to another, naturally aroused the indignation of the nation, Mr. Arita said, Tokyo's Counter-reply Mr, Masayuki Tant, VieewMinister Jot Foreign Affairs, this afternoon handed Sir Robert 1. Craigie, British Ambassador, the Japanese reply to the British' Government's note of January 27 answering the Japanese protest over the seizure of 21 German passengers of the inv. Asama Mant by the British Navy on January 21
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.