TROOPS TO PASS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 291, 9 December 1941, Page 8

TROOPS TO PASS

JAPS. IN THAILAND | Tokyo Announces Agreement After. Invasion United Press Association.—Copyright. Rec. 11 a.m. LONDON, Dec. 8. t,I h ® Japan £f e Boai £ of Information announced over the Tokyo radio that agreement has been reached between Japan and Thailand for the passage of troops through Thailand. After Japan's invasion of Thailand, which began early this mornmg, an official statement issued in Bangkok said that Thai resistance ceased temporarily at 7.30 a.m., reports a. Singapore message. Negotiations were under way and a decision was expected very soon. .Japanese planes bombed Bangkok •his morning. The officer-commanding the British forces in Malaya, Lieutenant-General M- Perciyal, said to-day that the Japanese forcfe are-in possession of ; southern Thailand, states an agency message. ¥ - ■•;. Reliable military observers €n: close contact with Indo-China estimate Japanese troops within the colony at 57,000 and on Hainan Island at 150,000, including a division trained in landing operations and parachutists trained by the Nazis, says the Manila correspondent of the Associated Press of America. The German - radio declared that Japanese troops have begun a peaceful entry of Bangkok and xhafcjr important points in the eastern and southern areas in accordance with the Japan-Thailand agreement. The Associated Press correspondent at Bangkok rays that Thailand, after a brief resistance, ceased firing and opened negotiations. The Japanese forces poured into Thailand from three coastal points at Prachuap Girikhand, Singora and Patani.