EAST AND THE PACIFIC

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20414, 26 November 1940, Page 12

EAST AND THE PACIFIC

WORDS OF WARNING VAST STAKE OF THE U.S.A. FIGHT FOR FREEDOM NEW YORK, Nov. 3. Rear-Admiral Yarnell, retired, who has had a long period of service in the Pacific and the Far East, declared in a public address that, though the United States had a vast, stake, economically, in the latter, it was, in addition, “politically interested” in Australia and New Zealand, and the fate that awaited them. He was speaking to the HeraldTribune Forum on Current Problems, whose proceedings were broadcast throughout the nation. Mr. Ogden Reid, editor of the Heralcl-Tribune, said there had been 16,000 reservations for the meeting, and that delegates had come from 40 States and Alaska and several foreign countries. The Canadian Minister for Naval Affairs, Mr. Angus MacDonald, and ! the Australian Minister to the Jnited States, Mr. R. G. Casey, delivered ‘ addresses. After citing, among other things, this country’s . Far Eastern trade amounting to 1,700,000,000 dollars in 1937, also its interest in airline bases in the Philippines, Midway, Wake, ana Guam, Admiral-Yarnell said: “At the present time, all our: interests in the Far East are threatened by.a nation that has proclaimed a ‘new .order in East Asia.' This vague phrase means extension of Japanese domination by force of arms over the entire Far Fast, and the expulsion of our citizens and our trade from that aioa. This has happened in Korea, in Manchuria, and the occupied parts ol Cnina, and it will happen in every area controlled by Japanese bayonets. “Hundreds of Notes have been I written by our Government, protest* i'ng against violation of treaties and the treaty rights of our citizens, and assaults against their persons and property. Scant courtesy has been given these Notes, and many of them remain unanswered. 'Hie i lomentous question confronting our nation to-day is how long, or to what extent, we will submit to infringement or destruction of our rights and interests by nations that respect nothing but force. Appeasement and confession have been 1 a failure, both in Europe and in Asia. | are interpreted by Germany and ] :l pan as weakness, and win only contempt, followed by increased insult! i and acts of aggression. If other means fail, the defence of our rights and vital interests by force is the onlymethod of preserving them. If we arc-

unwilling to defend our rights by force, we soon will have no rights to defend.” Mr. Casey’s Declaration Mr. Casey said that, in recent years, with totalitarianism oh the march, ooth in Europe and Asia, the Austra,ian people have come to appreciate more clearly than ever the importance of the great democratic strongholds in North America, (he United States, and Canada. “I believe 1 am not mistaken,” he ■;aid, “when 1 also say that the threat co democracy in Europe has heightened the realisation of many Americans that any serious threat to the democratic way of life in Australia and New Zealand would be a grave shock to those who enjoy democracy elsewhere. If at any time, Australia and New Zealand were called on lo make a contribution to a general wai effort in tjie south-western Pacific that contribution would not b< negligible. “It is because my fellow-counti'ymer. are alive to the real nature of the moral issues at stake in the world todav that thev are determined lo set .hrough to the bitter end the struggle in which they are now engaged. \V* io not admit the possibility of defeat, ■for the struggle is, for its, in very fruth, a second fight for freedom.”