STRENGTHENING OF SINGAPORE AND GUAM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 22 February 1941, Page 5

STRENGTHENING OF SINGAPORE AND GUAM

Effort to Impose Status Quo on Japan "ONE-SIDED" TALK OF WAR IN PACIFIC fUnited Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright] (Rec. 9.15 a.m.) Shanghai, Feb. 21. An Army spokesman, Major Kunio Akiyama, at a press conference said that Japan was like a peace dove but Britain and America were "snakes placing snakes’ eggs in the dove’s nest.” He said that Japan’s reaction is to "protest very vigorously." The interpreter added that Major Akiyama "means nothing unkindly when he calls Britain and America snakes." Major Akiyama said that the snakes’ eggs include the fortification of Singapore and Guam and the arrival of Australians in Malaya. He added that Britain and America were making an effort to "impose the status quo upon Japan" whereas actually Britain and America were guilty of first breaking the Pacific status quo, the former when it abrogated the Anglo-Japanese alliance, and the latter when it abrogated the Japan-American commercial treaty. He said that "Japan was always victimised.” Major Akiyama said that all the talk of war in the Pacific "centred on the eastern side of the Pacific whereas in the western Pacific everyone was crying peace. Asked whether the Japanese planned or are planning countermeasures to the arrival of the Australians in Malaya Major Akiyama said: "Not as far as the army is concerned." However the navy spokesman declined to comment on the same question as far as the navy is involved.