PACIFIC OCEAN

Evening Star, Issue 23991, 16 September 1941, Page 7

PACIFIC OCEAN

AMERICAN DEFENCE ZONE DECLARATION EXPECTED SOON HUNT FDR RAIDERS ABOUT TO BEGIN Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright MANILA, Sept. 14. The Philippine Press and competent observers express the opinion that tin* entire Pacific will soon be included m the definition of United States defence waters. The arrival of additional United States naval strength in the Philippines after President Roosevelt's speech is interpreted to mean that a. hunt is about to begin iu the Pacific for such raders as that which sank the Kota Nopan. The placing of the whole of the Pacific within American defence waters is necessary, American observers say, first, to maintain the bridge of shipping between America and Malaya and the East Indies in order to secure uninterrupted supplies of rubber, tin, and fat-producing materials to keep the democracies’ factories at full blast; secondly, to ensure an unblocked flow of United States war materials to tha Philippines, Australia, the ■ East Indies, Malaya, and Rangoon for transport along the Burma road to China, and oil and weapons to Vladivostok for the Soviet; thirdly, to safeguard normal commerce by the United States and Allied shipping between America and the Philippines. Guam, Midway, Canton, and other islands which ara bases iu American Pacific air communications.

OVERDUE AT PANAMA SEVERAL BRITISH AND DUTCH SHIPS PANAMA CITY. Sept. 15. Several British and Dutch vessels from New Zealand and the Dutch East Indies are considerably overdue at the canal zone. Authorities say ships arriving in the canal zone during the past fortnight reported receiving distress messages from vessels attacked by a raider in the Pacific, and the fact that no survivors of the missing ships have been found might indicate that the raider is holding them as hostages. : HOSTILITIES SOONER OR LATER AMERICAN CORRESPONDENT’S VIEWS SYDNEY, September 15. The American newspaper correspondent, Mr Hallett Abend, who is visiting Australia, is convinced that hostilities in the Pacific will break out sooner or later. He also Lehrves that America will come fully into the war. Tension in the Pacific, he -aid, had immobilised vast forces, and one had only to reflect what a ffereuce 3,000 planes and 300,000 men would have made in Greece if _ they had not been immobilised in Singapore and the Indies areas. y Abend said be saw no reason to feel hopeful about the outcome of tho United States-Japanese talks, as the. position of these two nations was so hopelessly opposed, and it would be next to impossible to find a basis of agreement. He added that Japan would never agree to remove her troops from China. Her armies would never obey an Imperial order to. evacuate China and give u,p the fruits of four years of war. There was no work for them back in Japan, and “ where they am thev live oh loot.” ■ , Mr Abend had been stationed tor 15 years in the Far East as representative of tho United Press. CIVILIAH CASUALTIES AIR TOLL FOR AUGUST I LOWEST SINCE BLITZ (British Official Wireless.) (Rec. noon.l RUGBY. September 15. Civilian air raid casualties last month were by far the lowest for any month since last year, when the heavy attacks began. , , The figure. 305, according to official statistics’ comprises 169 killed or missing and believed killed and 136 injured and detained in hospital. The next lowest figures are for June last, with 860 the “total of casualties, while the highest are September of last year, when 6,955 were killed and 10,624 seriously injured. NEW ZEALANDER IN A.I.F. POSTED AS WAR PRISONER (Rec. 12.10 p.m.) SYDNEY, Sept. 15., Corporal William Henry Early, of Te Kniti, who stopped a world tour at Sydney when war broke out to enlist in the A.1.F., was posted as a prisoner of war recently in a casualty list. He sailed from Sydney with the first A..1.F, Contingent, and fought in Libya, Greece, and Crete. He was educated at tho Massey Agricultural College.