“Something Great Will Happen”

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 142, 17 June 1941, Page 5

“Something Great Will Happen”

Japan May Follow U.S. Into War? MORE SENSATIONS AND MYSTERIES United Press Association—By IClectrlo Telegraph—Copyright. Received Tuesday, 1.45 a.m. NEW YORK, June 16. “In a short time something great will happen. ’ ’ This, according to the Berlin correspondent of the Nichi Nichi Shimbun, was said in an interview by Mr. Yamashita, head of the Japanese mission to the Axis. Mr. Yamashita declined to indicate what he meant, but according to the Tokio correspondent of the New York Times, the date of tho interview, Juno 12, may be significant. Mr. Yamashita, however, revealed that Hitler told him Japan’s aim should be to mobilise her full force and work harder in order to achieve the new order in tho Far East. Hitler also hinted that his will would contain instructions to the German people to bind themselves to the Nippon spirit. A Tokio message says the Government and the Imperial High Command held an extraordinary liaison conference at which they discussed urgent problems which were not disclosed. Mr. Nobumasa Suetsugo asserted that once the United States entered the war Japan would do likewise in order to keep faith and honour her account with the Tripartite Pact. Mr. Suetsugo added: “Japan cannot remain indifferent to developments in the South Seas regions because they constitute a life and death problem in Greater East Asia. ’ ’ Mr. Suetsugo made the statement in his capacity as chairman of the “Central Co-operative Council’’ of the Government-sponsored “Imperial Rule Assistance Association.” Prince Konoye, addressing the council in his capacity as president of the association, said: “Because the international situation surrounding Japan is most acute and the European war is increasing in scope it is impossible to predict when the entire world might be plunged into war.”