“CONTRIBUTION TO WORLD PEACE”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 28 September 1940, Page 6

“CONTRIBUTION TO WORLD PEACE”

[U.P.A.-By Electric Telegraph-Copyright] (Received 28th September, 11.5 a.m.) LONDON, 27th September. Herr von Ribbentrop, German Foreign Secretary, in his speech at the signing of the military pact between Germany, Italy and Japan, added that the pact aimed at the reconstruction of peace throughout the world and any country joining the alliance would have a voice in the redistribution*of territory after the war.

Count Ciano # (Italian Foreign Minister) and Mr Kurusu (Japanese Ambassador) made short speeches welcoming the alliance, which is semiofficially interpreted in Berlin to mean that the Axis Powers and Japan agreed to call a halt for all plans to extend or prolong the war, and “Thus the three powers contributed to world peace and the great cause of establishing a just, permanent and peaceful order.”

It is authoritatively stated in Rome that the alliance is intended to forestall war Cntry of the United States into the

It is authoritatively stated in Shanghai that the pact is a fourway defensive alliance (apparently including Spain), with economic sidelights, and will be effective in the event of American participation in the European War or an Anglo-American front in the Orient. It envisages a Spanish political offensive in South America in co-operation with Germai Fifth Columnists in efforts to divert the United States from the Orient. Shanghai authorities regard the alliance as an Axis victory in the sense that Japan’s fleet can now be employed to immobilise the United States navy in the Pacific, and possibly

Such of the cable news in this issue as is so headed has appeared in “The Times” and is sent to this paper by special permission. It should be understood that the opinions are not those of "The Times” unless expressly stated to be M*

even involve the United States in a Pacific war, thus impeding American activities and aid to Britain.

The first reaction in Washington is to intensify the defences, especially the two-ocean navy and to strengthen the outlying defences in the Pacific and the Atlantic.