Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1941. THE PACIFIC OUTLOOK.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 8, 21 October 1941, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1941. THE PACIFIC OUTLOOK.

Mr Fraser is not given to making alarmist statements, so that the warning he broadcast on Sunday night wall be received with due weight, arousing to a sense of possible danger those who have been inclined to consider some of the precautions taken as not justified in view of New Zealand’s remoteness from the actual arena of the present conflict. “The war situa- 1 tion,” said Mr Fraser, “is worse than it has been since the outbreak of war, and the situation is particularly grave in the Pacific.” In his new year message to the nation, Prince Konoye, then premier of Japan, who is not nearly so aggressive as the present Prime Minister, and who had earlier said that China would be beaten to her knees, declared that he was firmly determined to break the Anglo-American conception of the status quo in East Asia. These are grave words, and have a bearing on the integrity of Malaya, the very rampart of Australia and New Zealand. Japan’s actions in Indo-China and Thailand prove the disregard for others’ rights inherent in her aim of dotninance in the Orient and the South Seas. Even without her association with the Axis her policy would be a menace to British interests in the South Pacific, but the fact that relations with Berlin and Rome are to be strengthened adds to the seriousness of the position. The one aim of the Axis, to which all other aims are subordinated, is the destruction of the British Empire and if Japan fulfils to the limit her obligations under the Pact action against Britain must come. If observers in Washington rightly vie\y the position there is hope, though slight, that the extreme step may not be taken. This hope lies in the fact that the new Foreign Minister is regarded as holding vieyvs contrary to pro-Axis tendencies. But while clinging to hope that the worst may not be encountered, it would be suicidal to neglect all possible means and opportunities of strengthening our defences. Any Japanese tendency to aggression will be checked and any tendency to a pacific settlement of problems and aspirations will be strengthened if a solid, well-prepared front is presented to those who cast envious eyes on others’ possessions. The recent conferences that Sir Robert Brooke-Popham has had with the American defence chiefs, with others in the Far East and lately in Australia, have resulted in the formation of a united front, and New Zealand in her own interests must play her full part in whatever scheme has been evolved.