Japs’ Hopes of Peace Rise

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 265, 7 November 1941, Page 5

Japs’ Hopes of Peace Rise

INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF HONGKONG Received Thursday, 8.30 pjn. NEW YORK, Nov. 5. The New York Times’ correspondent (Mr. Otto Tolischus), in a message from Tokio, says hopes of maintaining peace in the Pacific bounded to-day when the Government announced that it had dispatched Mr. Karusu, one of Japan’s most experienced diplomats, to Washington to assist Admiral Nomura in his effort to facilitate amicable AmericanJapanese negotiations based on Prince Konoye’s peace message to President Roosevelt.

Diplomatic circles hail the dispatch of the new envoy as a silver lining to the war clouds over the Pacific at a moment when they looked dark indeed.

The New York Times’ correspondent (Mr. Durdin), writing from Singapore, says: “Parallel with the strengthening of the British military position in the Far East to offset the Japanese reinforcements of IndoChina has been the strengthening of Hongkong in a way which points to a more important role than hitherto indicated. The recent decision to recruit a Chinese army contingent at Hongkong is regarded as a significant manifestation of the new impdttance attached to the colony. The coming months may see Hongkong increasingly assume the position of a bastion of British power in the Far East and the vital link in the defence chain running all the way from Hawaii to China.”

“My statement about the Australian Navy has apparently been misinterpreted,” declared Sir Keith Murdoch in an Australian Associated Press interview. ‘ * Emphasis was put on an implication which was not intended. I said: ’Our own navy guards our northern coastline,’ and went on to describe the well-known exploits of Australian warships in the Mediterranean. It was a very general statement made to accomplish what is so necessary in America —to let Americans know that Australia has a very substantial contribution to make to the defence of the Pacific. This was part of a general presentation of the growing Australian war effort.

“I made no reference to the withdrawal of Australian naval units from the Mediterranean, about which I know nothing. Any inferences from my remarks would be accidental. It is of the greatest importance to Australia that her own individual efforts in her own defence and what she can bring to the democratic front in the Pacific should be known in tihe United States.”