“NO INTENTION TO ATTACK”

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23263, 25 February 1941, Page 9

“NO INTENTION TO ATTACK”

JAPANESE DIPLOMAT’S STATEMENT PURPOSE OF TRIPARTITE PACT LONDON, February 23. The Japanese Ambassador to Rome (Mr Z. Horikiri). in an interview with an Italian journalist, is reported to have said that Japan had no intention of making an attack against Britain or anyone. The Three-Power Pact had not been signed as a means of spreading the war, but as an instrument of peace. Agency reports in Rome to-night state that the Japanese Ambassador is leaving for Berlin to have talks with the new Japanese Ambassador there (Mr S. Togo). The chairman of the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Senator W. F. George), in an interview, said; "Based on facts which are common knowledge, reasonable deductions from recent events are that important developments may be expected in a few days in the Far East.” General Hugh Johnson said in a speech in New York that the United States was headed for war. “We shall be lucky.” he said, “if we are not in before the summer comes. America's great danger is in the Pacific.” The Director-General of Information in Singapore declared to-day that Germany was trying to persuade Japan to become more hopelessly involved by taking action against British interests and the Dutch East Indies, thus creating a diversion, which was all Germany cared about. If events took a turn for the worse, the position in the East, he said, could be regarded as satisfactory for Britain. Singapore was a heavilyarmed fortress, protected by guns, aeroplanes, minefields, the Navy, and thousands of British, Australian, and New Zealand troops. The British Government has again advised British citizens in Manchukuo to evacuate, or remain at their own a’ Shanghai message states that 1000 American citizens are preparing' to leave China for the United States. Thev intend to sail on a liner which will leave Shanghai on Tuesday.