RUSSIA AND JAPAN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2731, 9 February 1910, Page 3

RUSSIA AND JAPAN.

RUMORS OF IMPENDING WAR.

AN OFFICIAL DENIAL

Tilt* following semi-official announcement has been published in St. Petersburg:— “There has latterly been evident in the press a particularly nervous feeling, created by rumors of a conflict which is alleged to be impending between Russia and Japan. “Disquieting reports from the Far East fill the newspapers, and this feeling is penetrating in a regrettable manner to wider circles of society. “According to present reports the effect of these rumors is making itself especially strongly felt in our frontier territory in the Far East. “Under the influence of the conviction of the inevitableness of an approaching war with Japan, which is be_ coming deeply rooted n the minds of the community, oven representatives of tlio Administration not excepted, the feeling of anxietv is asuming such a strained character there that it reacts - directly upon private enterprise'. “The interests of the people forbid th-? Government to abstain from intervention in this disturbing state, of affairs, and oblige it to declare categorically that all rumors of complications between Russia and Japan at the present time are absolutely, unfounded. ' ■y . t “There lias been, since the treaty of IHO7, no friction of any kind, nor have any misunderstandings arisen. “Communications which have reached the Minister of Foreign Affairs direct,- as also the impression which the Minister of Finance gained during Iris recent voyage to the Far East, contain nothing disquieting. “On the contrary, thev emphatically confirm that in our relations to Japan complete mutual goodwill is to be preserved, and a readiness to settle in a peaceful and friendly manner all questions which may arise.”