THE WAR CENTRE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 2 December 1924, Page 5

THE WAR CENTRE.

WAR, GAME IN PACIFIC. ‘‘JINGOISTIC FULMINATIGNS.” BY JAPANESE PRESS. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYBIGHT _ . WASHINGTON, Dec. 1. ‘ . otate Department is now conferring with the proper British officials regardmg the visit of the American fleet to Australia and New Zealand, and it is understood that it has been officilly assured that the proposal meets the British. Government’s approval. Japanese sentiment appears to be vigorously opposed to the entire Hawaiian manoeuvres, as well as the Australian visit, although no responsible Japanese offciaL here or in Tbkio is desirous of expressing open disapproval. The Japanese Government has not lodged an official protest, and it is not believed that such will be lodged, but Tbkio newspapers continue their agitation against the Pacific manoeuvres, and Japanese officials , here privately expressed the opinion that war games in the Pacific aye unwarranted, . and - the Australian visit is unwise. The whole thing, is assuming the appearance of an anti-Jap-anese gesture. The Navy Department repulses all intimations that the manoeuvres are in any way . anti-Japanese, pointing out that the proposed war games were planned years ago as a general and technical stategic problem of American defence. There is a tendency among Japanese here to raise the question, whether the hction erf the Secretary for the Navy (Mr. Theodore Roosevelt) in sending the fleet around the world and .on a vist to Australia could not be construed as a demonstration, the aim of which J" to influence Japanese foreign polief generally and especially in the Pacific, aiid whether the 1925 manoeuvres are not open to the interpretation that the United States again aims at the delimitation of Japan’s Pacific and foreign outlook by indicating that American naval strategy now centres in the Western Ocean, and not in the Atlantic. - , ?Ameiicah officials deplore the jingoistic fulminations of the Japanese popular press, .and point put that the United States Congress, which must approve of the fleet’s fuel outlay for the Australian visit, will probably take a definite attitude that the unwarranted expression of anti-American sentiment makes essential the manoeuvres and the visit . Thus the t whole nuestion would tend to engender an undesirable feeling. inst a« the Japanese opposition to the immigration law ‘brought forth Congressional counter-opposition.