PEACE IN PACIFIC

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20625, 5 August 1941, Page 6

PEACE IN PACIFIC

BRITISH DESIRES DEFENSIVE MEASURES ATTITUDE TO JAPAN (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 1.40 p.m. RUGBY. Aug. 4. The Australian Minister of War, Mr. P. C. Spender, reviewing the international situation at Sydney, declared that Australia had the equivalent of five to six divisions at overseas battle stations, and all had been transported without loss o£ life. Mr. Spender said the Commonwealth looked forward to the rising tension in the Far East with calm and determined eyes. “We have never sought to disturb the peace in the Pacific,” he said. "On the contrary, we have tried to preserve it." The British commonwealth and the United States, in the sharp ancl decisive economic preliminary steps, had surprised Japan, but the indications were that Japan was contemplating further action. Britain had no designs on Indo-China, and a similar declaration by Japan would be welcomed. Reports that Britain is seeking to obtain naval and air bases in Thailand and that she had sent 100,000 troops to the Burma-Thailand border have been authoritatively denied in London, where it is recalled that reports of a similar equally unfounded nature were set in circulation concerning the British intentions in relation to French Indo-China. The position of Thailand is accordingly being watched carefully in London, and with some concern, but various expressions of the Thai Government's determination to preserve its independence and integrity have been noted with satisfaction.