"JAPAN'S GRAVE HOUR"

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23232, 20 January 1941, Page 7

"JAPAN'S GRAVE HOUR"

PURPOSE OF RECENT MEETINGS COST OF THE WAR IN CHINA (BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.) RUGBY, January 17. “The Times,” Li a leading article entitled “Japan’s Grave Hour,” says; “The purpose of the series of meetings which is being held by Prince Konoye is undoubtedly to allay widespread misgivings about results at home and abroad. The appalling casualty figures now becoming known in Tokyo must blazon, to the eyes of even the most purblind in Japan, the terrible cost of the attempt to conquer China, which remains unconquered after nearly four years of war. Nor do they represent ail the losses which the militaristic policy of the last six years has involved. The cost in money is mounting to such an extent as to cast doubt upon the future solvency of the country. "Moreover, the policy of militarism involves in Japan, as everywhere else, another loss—loss of liberty at home. The liberal traditions which Japanese statesmen of a previous generation had carefully built up are going by the board, and to the loss of life and income is being added the loss of civil rights. “The" Japanese public cannot fail to see that the policy of soldiers and sailors is having just as bad an influence in external as in home affairs, for relations with the United States are rapidly deteriorating. The present policy of the Japanese Government seems to be leading the country to financial ruin and dissension between the militarists and the politicians at home and abroad and to an extension of the war, which already strains the national resources to an almost unbearable degree. “The United States is being truculently bidden to refrain from helping Britain while Japan is doing what she can to help Germany. President Roosevelt, of course, is not in the least affected by the Japanese threats, and the United States continues to assist both Britain and China.”

Leading Tokyo newspapers, “Asahi,” “Nichi Nichi,” and “Yomiuri” attacked the speech of Mr Cordell Hull, the United States Secretary of State, before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the United States House of Representatives. They described the speech as an outrageous distortion of Japan’s policies and a clear-cut war challenge to the Axis. v

MILITARY TRAINING FOR POLES AND CZECHS

COLLEGE ESTABLISHED IN LONDON

(BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.) RUGBY, January 17. A staff college has been inaugurated in London by the Polish Prime Minister (General Sikorski). The college is designed for both Polish and Czech officers, and lecturers will be drawn from among higher officers with former staff college experience of both armies. Performing the opening ceremony in the presence of the Chief of Staff of the Czech Army (General Znamenacek), General Sikorski emphasised the political importance of the fact that the staff college would serve the armies of Poland and Czechoslovakia simultaneously. The closest collaboration of the two nations was imperative, he said, not only because of their racial affinity, but also because of their geographical position, and he admitted that both nations had only recently paid a very high price for disregarding this principle. The two Governments had entered now on the road to close collaboration, and the staff college was an expression of this intention,