THREAT OF WAR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 272, 29 August 1933, Page 5

THREAT OF WAR.

BUILDING FLEETS IN PACIFIC.

MR W. D. STEWART’S VIEWS

(United Press Association—Copyright) MONTREAL, August 27.

The Hon. W. Downie Stewart, formerly Minister of Finance in the New Coalition Government, startled members of the Institute of Pacific Relations at its farewell dinner at Banff (Alberta) by declaring that the Institute might well have discussed the present feverish building of battleships by the great nations on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.

Mr Stewart said that if causes of friction were studied by the Institute, the building of war fleets could not properly be ignored and should be taken into*consideration before serious events occurred. He mentioned the seething cauldron in Europe and said that he felt that while the situation in the Pacific was alarming enough it was not so gloomy as in the Old World. He hoped the Institute would be afforded an oppoitunity' to study the insistent causes of conflict which were bringing about a threat of war. The sessions of the Institute have concluded.

.A remarkably frank interview oranted bv General S. Araki (Japanese Minister for War) to the American Associated Press at New York on August 19, and circulated widely throughout the. United ' States, was interpreted as meaning that Japan intended to advance sufficiently by the 1935 Naval Conference denounce both the W ashington and London naval treaties. General Araki declared that Japan had lto apologies to offer for her actions in Manchuria and China. He bitterly assailed ’Western diplomacy, “with its lip service of peace,” and declared that “international accords and international combinations have not helped Japan in her times cf need.” He then instanced the war with Russia, and continued: “In 1922 the British Empire, desiring the favour of the United States, summarily abrogated our alliance. To-day, our people are practically barred from migrating to vast semi-filled spaces in the British Dominions of Canada and Australia. More recently there has been a determined effort to bar our goods from the British Empire.” ,