ATTACK ON THE SOVIET

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 43, 19 August 1941, Page 8

ATTACK ON THE SOVIET

OPINION OF CHINESE

THAILAND A BLIND

(By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright.)

(Rec. 1.30 p.m.) LONDON, August 18. The Chinese are convinced that the threat of a Japanese move against Thailand is intended to preoccupy the "ABCD" Powers (America, Britain, China, and the Dutch) while Japan prepares for an attack on Russia at Vladivostok, according to the Hong Kong correspondent of "The Times." The "Daily Mail's" Shanghai correspondent quotes Tokio reports that the greatest assembly of transports ever seen is gathering, it is reported, for Korea and Dairen.

A warning that if Russo-Japanese relations get worse the Kremlin alone will be responsible, was given by the Tokio "Hochi Shimbun." The newspaper adds: "Japan cannot remain indifferent to reports that Moscow has agreed to pool war materials with the anti-Axis Powers, because Russia is aware that Japan's efforts to settle the "China affair" are being delayed by British and American obstruction. The "Nichinichi Shimbun" warns the Soviet to reject the Moscow ThreePower conference, which would mean further encirclement of Japan. According to the Shanghai bureau of the Associated Press, Japanese sources have intimated that the Nanking regime intends to oust the British and United States consular officials from Japanese-occupied China on the ground that their Governments have failed to recognise the Wang" Chingwei regime. APPEALS BEING MADE. The correspondent of the Domei news agency at Singapore says that the Japanese living within a 15-mile radius of Singapore naval base who have been ordered to leave the area within a fortnight include residents and officers of concerns holding vast rubber tracts. They are appealing against the decision. It is officially announced in Cairo that large quantities of Egyptian cotton which were ready for shipment io, ' Japan are not being forwarded following the cancellation of all navicerts for cargoes from Egypt to Japan.

The Tokio bureau of the Associated Press says that there are reliable indications that the Russian Far Eastern army strength has been fully mobilised and stationed on the Siberian border.

The Domei news agency has reported that Japanese assistance to In doChina might be increased because of the tightening encirclement of the Japanese sphere by Britain and the United States.