Tokyo, Feb. 22.
French reports alleging that the Japanese naval air force in China was acting in disregard of instructions from Tokyo when bombing the Yunnan Railway were categorically denied by Rear-Admiral Masao Kanazawa, spokesman for the Navy Ministry in his weekly press interview here today.
"The action taken by the Japanese naval air force against the railway, forming one of the major arms supply routes for the Chungking regime, had followed full consultation with the authorities in Tokyo, he said.
Rear-Admiral Kanazawa pointed out that the allegation that the raids on the railway constituted evidence of lack of discipline among the Japanese naval forces in Eh Waters was totally unfounded.
While the Japanese authorities had not yet been officially advised to that effect, the spokesman said he believed that Mr. Nelson T. Johnson, American Ambassador to China, had already arrived in Kunming, the western terminus of the Yunnan Railway. Rear-Admiral Kanazawa said he understood that the envoy had left Hanoi on February 20 for! Yunnan.
Shuttle-trains had been in operation between the various points of the railway Westroyed by Japanese bombing attacks, the spokesman said on the basis of information reaching Tokyo, Mr. Johnson, he added, possibly may have been compelled to walk some distance between the interrupted sections—Domei.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.