MANILA TALKS ENDED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 85, 7 October 1941, Page 8

MANILA TALKS ENDED

U.S.-BRITISH PLANS

ASSISTANCE IN WAR

LONDON, October 6.

The British and United States commanders in the Far East have concluded their/talks at Manila, and Sir Eobert Brooke-Popham flew back to Singapore this morning. An observer there says that no official comment is yet available, although it is known that strategic problems were discussed. Obviously, he says, these included mutual assistance in the event of war in the Pacific. "It is now recognised," the observer adds, "that British and American defence problems in the Far East have much in common." American commentators have described the talks as a valuable exchange of information on common strategic problems in the Pacific area., * JAPANESE IN THAILAND. There are reports from French IndoChina that the Japanese are busy establishing their "new order" there. Following their seizure of dock buildings near Saigon last week they are said to be exerting pressure on the French authorities. French nationals now must have a permit to travel by the French commercial airline and travellers wishing to cross into Thailand must notify the Japanese military authorities. • ■ ■ - ■ The Japanese Domei news agency has once again charged that Thailand; is too pro-British. The liader of the first American mission to Chungking today, General Magruder, declared that the mission's task was to make available in its most effective form all the assistance afforded by the Lend and Lease Act. In the Philippines, conscription has added 150,000. men to the army, and America's permanent garrison has received more tanks, rifles, and aircraft, as well as reinforcements of men.