NO PROGRESS AT WASHINGTON

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 133, 2 December 1941, Page 7

NO PROGRESS AT WASHINGTON

LONDON, December 1.

In Australia the Prime Minister, Mr. J. Curtin, said "Japan alone can now decide the vital issue, war or no Avar."

Mr. Curtin., who had just called an unexpected meeting of his defence Ministers, said that for the past year the British Empire had been mustering its resources to defend its territories against aggression. In Canberra it is reported that the Commonwealth War Cabinet might meet there again tomorrow.

Although Mr. Saburo Kurusu and Admiral Nomura saw Mr. Cordell Hull today, they delivered no reply to his Note of last week in which he stated the American position. It is learnt

President Roosevelt returned to Washington this afternoon and immediately conferred with Mr. Cordell Hull, the U.S. Secretary of State, on the situation in the Far East which remains critical.

Meanwhile, British and American bases in the Pacific are ready for any development.

There is now a state of emergency in Malaya and all volunteers in the Singapore Eoyal Naval Reserve and the Malayan Volunteer Air Force have been mobilised. In Hong Kong all troops have been called to barracks and naval ratings have returned to their ships.

In the Philippines, leave has been restricted and a total black-out enforced at the main naval base.

The Governor-General of the Netherlands East Indies has ordered the mobilisation of reservists and the raising of the air force to wartime strength.

that today's talks with the Japanese envoys, which lasted more than an hour, concerned only subordinate phases: of the situation, and that no further discussions have been arranged.

Admiral Nomura said as he left the conference, "I believe there must be wise statesmanship to save the situation."

In Tokio, the Japanese Cabinet held a special session this morning, and it is reported that it was decided to redouble efforts to make the United States reconsider its standpoint. A later message says that the Cabinet decided to continue the talks with the United States right to the last moment.