THREAT IN PACIFIC?

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 117, 18 April 1939, Page 7

THREAT IN PACIFIC?

PARALLEL POWER POLITICS. UNITED STATES FLEET. WASHINGTON, April 16. The President was at his desk at White House throughout Sunday. The Secretary of State (Mr Cordell Hull) was consulting departmental officials throughout the clay. He is reported to have discussed the possibility of a Japanese move coinciding with European developments. High naval officers conferred with the Navy Department and semi-offici-al Iy confirmed that the fleet movement is a precautionary measure in the light of the Far Eastern situation. The Administration still maintains silence regarding the reasons for the fleet's transfer. Naval officers privately described the move ns political rather than strategic. The opinion is held in some quartera that the United States is playing a game of parallel power politics with England and France designed to implement by sea the land encirclement of tho totalitarian Powers

Senator King holds that the stage is set for a bold Japanese move into the South Pacific, probably against tlie Dutch East Indies and even the Philippines.

Though the United , States Army anc! .Naval authorities do not believe that die totalitarian States of Europe would risk trans-Atlantic invasion, it was felt it would be useful to give them a reminder of that risk. Hence, for the first time since 1934, full-scale manoeuvres were held in the Atlantic and Caribbean Sea. Engaged wore 134 ships, 600 aeroplanes and 49.445 men. The exercise envisaged a hostile attack on the Panama Canal, and it was considered likely that the enemy would first attempt tjhe capture of Trinidad, British territory, as a base for further operations. The defence, therefore, included boating off an attack on that port.