FAITH IN U.S. NAVY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 169, 19 July 1941, Page 5

FAITH IN U.S. NAVY

PEOPLE IN FAR EAST

JAPAN USING NAZI FORMULA

(By Air.) SAN FRANCISCO, July 12.

"The Japanese have the Nazi formula and are working as though from blueprints in the Far East. . .

The Dutch, French and British out there have a child-like faith in the United States Navy. They just know it is going to save them if necessary." These were observations passed along by Edwin Hartrich, former editor of the "Paris Herald," whose Press and radio assignments have placed him on both sides of German lines—and who has watched the Nazi technique from Scandinavia to Singapore. He lis also the youngish man who drove unmolested from conquered Holland to Berlin when thwarted in attempts to get a visa which would permit his return to Norway. American flags ,on his small car turned the trick.

| Mr. Hartrich handed expressed! [opinions following his arrival in j California by Norwegian freighter from Manila and a five-month tour of ■significant Far East hot spots. Japanese tactics in French Indo-China are l [typical of the formula he spoke of as being prevalent.

I "Japanese agents organised natives into various groups—some racial, lothers Communist and so on," he' explained. "To add to the confusion,! Icertain French officials were kidjnapped and murdered behind French | lines. All of this then prompted the Japanese to protest thai they 'must clean up the Cc..:munists!' "

The French in Indo-China are! Ihelpless, but, like the rest, expectj American aid, Mr. Hartrich said. I I "As hard-headed businessmen, they (realise that their only business saljvation rests with American or (British victory," he said. "The> j openly sympathise with the de ;i Gaulle movement."

! He told of Japanese "training 'cruises'' through the nearby Gulf of Siam. Xazi '"tourists" also ar<- flock'ing through the area, he Off

setting this were his reports of in-| creased British strength at Singapore and an increasingly strong United States position in the Philippines.

Referring to expected help from! the American Fleet, he said: "It is certainly going to be tough on them if the Fleet goes no farther than the Philippines. The British and the Dutch probably can hold their positions, but they are not strong enough to go out and meet any threat before it reaches them." The Dutch will not! be bluffed any more than will the British, he said.

The correspondent's tour by ship and plane was made for a news service and to gather lecture and magazine article material. His earlier war coverage was as a correspondent for radio. From his "Paris Herald" editorship he went to the RussoFinnish front in the autumn of 1939. Admitting that all he saw was "second and third stringers" for the Russians in that frigid campaign, he expressed surprise that the Stalinists were now holding off the Germans as much as they had at the present.