EAST AND THE PACIFIC

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 121, 18 November 1940, Page 6

EAST AND THE PACIFIC

WORDS OF WARNING

VAST STAKE OF THE U.S.A.

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

NEtPyORK, November 3,

Rear-Admiral Yarnell, retired, who has had a long period of service in the Pacific and the Far East, declared in a public address that, though the United States had a vast stake, economically, in the latter, it was, in addition, "politically interested" in Australia and New Zealand, and the fate that awaited them. He was speaking to the "Herald-Tribune" Forum on Current Problems, wnose proceedings were broadcast throughout the nation. Mr. Ogden Reid, editor of the "HeraldTribune," said there had been 16,000 reservations for the meeting, and that delegates had come from 40 States and Alaska and several foreign countries. The Canadian Minister for Naval Affairs, the Hon. Angus Mac Donald, and the Australian Minister to the United States, the Hon. R. G. Casey, delivered addresses.

After citing, among other things, this country's Far Eastern trade amounting to 1,700,000,000 dollars in 1937, also its interest in airline .bases in the Philippines, Midway, Wake, and Guam, Admiral Yarnell said: "At the present time, all our interests in the Far East are .threatened by a nation that has proclaimed a 'new order in East Asia.' This vague phrase means extension of Japanese domination by force of arms over the entire Far East, and the expulsion of our citizens and our trade from that area. This has happened in Korea, in Manchuria, and the occupied parts of China, and it will happen in every area controlled by Japanese bayonets.

"Hundreds of Notes have been written by our Government, protesting against violation of treaties and the treaty rights of our citizens, and assaults against their persons and property. Scant courtesy has been given these Notes, and many of them remain unanswered. The momentous question confronting our nation today is how long, or to what extent, we will submit to infringement or destruction of our rights and interests by nations that respect nothing but force. Appeasement and confession have been a failure, both in Europe and in Asia. They are interpreted by Germany and Japan as weakness, and win only contempt, followed by increased insults and acts of aggression. If other means fail, the defence of our rights and vital interests by force is the only method of preserving them. If we are unwill- j ing to defend our rights by force, we soon will have no rights to defend." MR. CASEY'S DECLARATION. Mr. Casey said that, in recent years, with totalitarianism on the march, both in Europe and Asia, the Australian people have come to appreciate more clearly than ever the importance of the great democratic strongholds in North America, the United States, and Canada. "I believe I am not mistaken," he said, "when 1 also say that the threat to democracy in Europe has heightened the realisation of many Americans that any seriou threat to the democratic way of life in Australia and New Zealand would be a grave shock to those who enjoy democracy elsewhere. If at any time, Australia a~d New Zealand were called on to make a contribution to a general war effort in the south-western Pacific, that contribution would not be negligible. „ ,

"It is because my fellow-countrymen are alive to the real nature of the moral issues at stake in the world today that they are determined to see through to the bitter end the struggle in which they are now engaged. We do not admit the possibility of defeat, for the struggle is, for us, in very truth, a second fight for freedom."