NEW ORDER IN PACIFIC

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 111, 4 February 1941, Page 8

NEW ORDER IN PACIFIC

Japan’s “Second Phase” AUSTRALIA AND INDIA, BUT NOT N.Z. Singapore Comes Earlier (By Telegraph.—Press Assn. -Copyright.) NEW YORK, February 2. “Australia and India, but not New Zealand, will be in the second phase of Japan’s new order,” said Admiral Suetsugu (retired), a member of the Cabinet Advisory Council, in an interview with the Tokio correspondent of the “New York Times.” The first phase, said Admiral Suetsugu, would include China, the Malayan islands, and the Dutch East Indies. Singapore was the key to the situation. It was regarded as a serious obstacle to Japanese hegemony in the South Seas. Admiral Suetsugu added that Singapore, Hawaii, and Australia constituted points vital to the strategy of an enemy attacking Japan. The Singapore correspondent of the London ‘-Sunday Express” says that Burma and India will be in danger if Japan enters the war. The territory which promises the most immediate" rewards for Japanese financiers is the vulnerable Dutch East Indies. There is an obvious threat to Malaya but. the Singapore base will justify the millions spent on it. Japan is facing ruin. She has enormous debts, while the army is making increasing inroads on the national reserves of wealth. Only a sudden turn of the wheel can bring fortune to the Japanese and, like Hitler, they may be preparing to gamble all on one desperate coup.