Doc. No. 6907 military strength and political bargaining power was used in furtherance of the objects of the conspiracy will unfold as the evidence progresses. This evidence will prove both the fact of conspiracy and that the accused were parties to it. The evidence relating to various treaties and agreements and the subdivisions thereof will disclose the facts herein¬after stated. I. THE ANTI-COMINTERN PACT AND SECRET AGREEMENT As shown in earlier phases of the case, the Kwantung Army in the early part of 1936 was restrained in its west¬ward advance from Manchuria into Mongolia by the danger of war with the Soviet Union. Japan's expansion from Man¬churia into the remainder of China also was checked temporarily as the result of the refusal of Chinese war lords in North China to desert the National Chinese Government. Confronted with this situation, Japan entered into negotiations for a military alliance with Germany, a totalitarian power then engaged in a program of military preparedness for aggressive war in Europe. Negotiations, begun in June 1935? the date of the so-called HO-UMEZU Agreement referred to in a previous phase of the case, were conducted through military channels because of the fact that the subject of negotiations was a strictly military matter and because no treaty of this