FATEFUL PASS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 284, 1 December 1941, Page 7

FATEFUL PASS

JAPAN" ON THE BRINK Goodwill Always Shown By Democracies r• • v * . TJ.P.A. ami British Wirelws. Rec. 1 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 30. The First Lord of the Admiralty. Mr. A. V. Alexander, in a speech referring to the Far East situation, said: "We see our old ally Japan trembling on the brink of a tragic blunder. Her leaders say she is at the crossroads, but who has led her to such a fateful pass? "The goodwill and co-operation of the United States and ourselves has always been at the disposal of the rulers of Japan, along the paths of reason and peace. It is her militarists who have led her to the present grave predicament. I believe many wise and foresighted men in Japan see the ruin which is at the end of one of the roads confronting her. I believe that some of her leaders will give wiser counsel than to plunge into the rapids. Let me recall to them the recent words of Mr. Churchill, in which he spoke of his long-standing, sincere regard for Japan, although he had to declare that should Japan force a war upon America our own declaration would follow within an hour, and that we have now found it possible to send naval reinforcements to the Far East." Threat Of Vengeance The Japanese Prime Minister, General Tojo. in a statement in Tokio on the anniversary of the JapanManchukuo declaration of the "new order in East Asia," asserted that British and American exploitation of the Asiatic peoples must be "purged with a vengeance."

General Tojo said Marshal Chiang Kai-shek was dancing to the tune of British and American Communism because Britain and the United States desired to throw the Asiatic peoples against each other. "This is the stock-in-trade of Britain and the United States, and therefore we must purge this sort of action with vengeance," he said.

Should the war strike now it would find the Philippines unprepared and unprotected, said the President, Dr. Manuel Quezon, in a speech at the university. Thousands might be killed for lack of air raid shelters. If war had broken out two months ago there would have been starvation. American "imperialists" blocked his defence plans in order to have an argument against the granting of independence to the Philippines.

A Washington message states that Senator G. M. Gillette has learned from a reliable but not official source that Hitler has promised Japan substantial military aid by February. By January the Vichy Government will he forced to turn over the French fleet to German control.

Senator Gillette expressed the opinion that no agreement, except possibly a delaying truce, could be reached with Japan. He said he understood Mr. Kurusu had been sent to Washington at the request of Hitler to delay the negotiations until Germany could aid Japan in invading Thailand and attacking the Burma Road.

French Indo-China's role in the event of war in the Pacific would be directed solely from Vichy, said Admiral Decoux, the Governor, in an interview witl an agency correspondent at Hanoi.