SHOCK FOR JAPAN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23411, 29 July 1939, Page 13

SHOCK FOR JAPAN

AMERICA'S ATTITUDE PEOPLE PREVIOUSLY MISLED NOTIONS TORPEDOED REACTION IN EUROPE By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright LONDON, July 27 The Japanese Foreign Office spokesman said to-day that it was most difficult to grasp the underlying motive of the denunciation of the treaty with Amei-ica, whose reasons were of the briefest. It was highly susceptible to the interpretation of a political move. Japan, however, was ready to negotiate if the United States desired a new treaty conforming with the new order in Asia. Abrogation was unthinkable. Official notification had not been received by Japan and lie could ofler no reason for the action of America. Renter's Tokio correspondent says Mr. Roosevelt's action has torpedoed the Japanese people's notions in regard to the American attitude toward Japan. A long campaign of misrepresentation has led to the belief that America would not object to Japan's policy. The Stock Exchange slumped badly, stocks falling as much as three yen. Observers say the denunciation foreshadows economic and commercial steps to combat the Japanese attempt to create a new order by force. Japanese industrialists regard the immediate effect as negligible, but say it opens the way to more drastic action. The denunciation of the treaty by the United States is considered at Chungking to be the greatest gesture and moral encouragement to China that any Power could make. It has tempered the disappointment of the Chinese at the agreement between Britain and Japan. Diplomatic quarters ill Paris say it gives Japan six months grace to modify her China policy, while political circles at Moscow hope it is the first step to a complete embargo on all war materials to Japan. > The denunciation is described in the Berlin press as a "flank coverage for Britain to counter-balance the Tokio capitulation and one stage toward an arms embargo." ' MENACE TO CANADA JAPANESE AMBITIONS ONTARIO PREMIER'S SPEECH ; ' "CANADIANS SMUG TOO LONG" .(Received July 28, 5.50 p.m.) NEW YORK, July 28 The Premier of Ontario, Mr. M. F. Hepburn, in a public address at Niagara Falls, said the Canadian people had been smug and apathetic too long. The future was not secure, as the past had always been. "When Japan completes her conquest of China, she will turn to Canada," said Mr. Hepburn. "I was in British

Columbia in 1935, and the people out there take a most serious view of the problem." Mr. Hepburn confessed that when he was a member of the Federal Parliament he had been opposed to measures to strengthen Canada's national defence, but he had since changed his views concerning the "Japanese menace."