JAPANESE ATTACK

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

JAPANESE ATTACK

THAILAND OR CHINA?

SCEPTICISM IN CHUNGKING v

(Rec 10.30 a.m.) BANGKOK, December 1. Thai newspapers said today that troops of Indo-China, supported by planes, were manoeuvring near the Thailand frontier "under alien officers." "Our neighbours have already fixed their bayonets," said one newspaper. The Associated Press quoted qualified observers as attaching particular significance today to a statement by Bangkok radio that Thailand would welcome the assistance "of friendly Powers if forced to fight for her independence. A Manila message quotes informed' quarters as stating today that a Japanese fleet headed by 16 heavy cruisers and some aircraft-carriers was believed to be in the vicinity of the southern Japanese mandated islands within easy striking distance of British Borneo. Military reports have estimated that 100,000 Japanese troops are now in Indo-China and reinforcements are said to be arriving constantly. The American Consulate at Bangkok again advised Americans living in Thailand to be prepared to leave in the event of an emergency. Bangkok radio, commenting on the foreign reports that a Japanese attack on Thailand was to be expected in a few days, asserted, "Thailand will never be attacked by Japanese troops." CHINESE POINT OF VIEW. A Chungking message reports that the Government spokesman, Dr. T. F. Tsiang, said: "We feel that there now can be no outcome of the Washington talks which will prove fundamentally unacceptable to China. "I do. not think Japan is at present ready to invade Thailand or any other country. Therefore the immediate outbreak of a Pacific war is not expected." He predicted that action against China rather than invasion of Thailand would be the Japanese course, if the Washington talks failed, and said Japan did not have the resources to invade Thailand. Dr. Tsiang denied that Germany was making an effort to mediate a SinoJapanese peace through Nanking. He said that Chungking would '-'remain indifferent to such an overture if made," and said that in the event of a Japan-ese-American war China would be able to take the military initiative. Several Chinese tiewspapers urge the United States to suspend the Washington talks immediately for the sake of prestige. The tenor of the Press comment was that Japan would never turn back,' and there could be no peace in the Pacific until Japan was disarmed. The influential "Takung Pao" said the best course wbuld be to smash Japan at once, or at least to tighten the blockade. NAZIS GETTING TOGETHER. A Shanghai message reports that Ernst Wendler, German • Minister to Thailand, has arrived by plane from Bangkok. The arrival at Nanking of Fritz Weidemann, formerly Nazi Con-sul-General at Sah«Francisco, has been marked by an intensification of Nazi I diplomatic activity.

It is expected that Weidemann and Wendler will confer with Zinsser, the acting German Consul-General in Shanghai.