WASHINGTON VIEW

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20630, 11 August 1941, Page 5

WASHINGTON VIEW

‘ENCIRCLEMENT’ BOGEY JAPAN RESPONSIBLE NO NEED FOR FEAR (Reed. Aug. 11, 9 a.m.) WASHINGTON, Aug. 9. The United States Secretary of State, Mr. Cordell Hull, replying to the Tokio charges of “encirclement” by America, Britain, China and Holland, said that no law-abiding nation need fear encirclement. He asserted that Japan alone was responsible for any encirclement. The Tokio correspondent of the New York Times says that the Japanese press continues to denounce the alleged encirclement and to give warning of the consequences. While the spokesman of the Japanese Information Bureau, Baron Ishii, qualified his refutation of Mr. Anthony Eden’s denial of such encirclement with the declaration that it was subject to further scrutiny, other spokesmen and the press make no qualifications whatsoever. The Tokio correspondent of the United Press of America reports that, preliminary negotiations are proceeding with Washington for reciprocal arrangements for the repatriation of Japanese residents in the United States and vice versa, under which Japanese ships will be dispatched to American ports to pick up Japanese while one or more American ships will call at Japanese ports to pick up Americans.

No encirclement could turn Japan aside from the' road which she was dreading, said the Japanese Foreign Minister, Admiral Togoda, in an interview with Axis correspondents in Tokio. Japan was not remaining indifferent to any new measures threatening her security or that of eastern Asia. The so-called Japanese expansions in the south was really a purely pacific policy destined to establish relations between Japan and the southern regions which would be advantageous t 6 the whole world. In a message to the Tokio newspaper Miyako a San Francisco correspondent said that the United States’ Government was storing large quantities of oil in Australia for American warships as part of the “British and States plan to encircle Japan.” Tire newspaper proceeded to give details of the alleged sailings of six American tankers on August 4 and claimed that the storage of American oil reserves in Australia was significant.