Tokyo, May 19.
Japanese newspapers charged Britain with attempting to interfere with Japanese economic life through stopping exports of copra from the Pacific area, and simultaneously claimed that Japan had a vital interest in war events in the Near East, in editorials published this week-end The "Nichi Nichi" charged the British government with an "inhuman attempt" to disturb Japan's foodstuffs policy by ordering natives of the West Pacific islands not to sell copra. The newspaper said the Japanese government had contracted to purchase copra at the rate of 100 yen a ton to be manufactured into oil and thus Tojieva Japan's shortage of cooking oil, The "Nichi Nichi" claimed the Japanese government had prepared to dispatch special bottoms in order to transport the copra, but the British government had interfered, "to the exasperation of the natives whose livelihood depended on revenue from copra sales." Outcome of the case was being watched closely by Tokyo, the article added.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.