JAPAN'S TACTICS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 32, 7 February 1941, Page 7

JAPAN'S TACTICS

DIVIDING THE CAMP

BRITAIN AND U.S.A.

SOUTHWARD POLICY

(By. Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.)

LONDON, February 5

The; Tokio correspondent of "The 'Times" says that the Foreign Minister, Mr. Matsuoka, actually indicated the line that Japan is pursuing when he told the Diet that the southward policy might cause grave friction with the United States, but that he would endeavour to make clear that the expansion was not inconsistent with American interests. While the negotiations in Batavia, Dutch East Indies, are confined to economic questions, Japan is winning diplomatic victories in regions which are bringing her near to Singapore, and this is considered the line of least resistance as far as America is concerned. The old policy of keeping England and America apart is again ascendant and Japan is evidently hoping that America will not actively obstruct an extension of her influence to Malaya. Japan believes that if Singapore is lost or muzzled her own hegemony in the Western Pacific will have been gained. Press dispatches to Tokio from Berlin declare that the European war is likely to develop a third front towards Malaya. They add that Britain's efforts to strengthen the Singapore defences are only moderately formidable and Britain is temporarily prepared to entrust the defence of her interests in the Far East to America.