WAR GAMES IN PACIFIC

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 12001, 2 December 1924, Page 7

WAR GAMES IN PACIFIC

JAPANESE DISAPPROVAL AMERICAN FLEET’S SOUTHERN CRUISE CALLED “UNWISE.” BAD FEELING AROUSED. By Telegraph. —Press Assn.—Copyright Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Received December 1, 8.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, December 1. The State Department is now conferring with, the proper British officials regarding the visit of the American fleet to Australia and New Zealand, and it is understood that it has been officially assured that the proposal meets the British) Government’s approval. Japanese sentiment appears to he vigorously opposed to the entire Hawaiian manoeuvre®, as wo 11 as to the Australian visit, although no respsonsible Japanese official here or in Tokio is desirous of expressing open disapproval. The Japanese Government has not lodged an official protest, and l it is not believed that such will be lodged. but) the Tokio (newspapers continue their agitation against tho Pacific manoeuvres, and Japanese officials here privately express the opinion that the war games in the Pacific are unwar ranted, and that the Australian visit in unwise, the whole thing assuming the appearance of an anti-Japanese gesture. PLANNED YEARS AGO. The Navy Department repulses all intimations that tho manonvres are in any way anti-Japanese, pointing out that .the proposed) War Igamee were planned years ago, as a general, technical, and strategic problem of American defence. There is a tendency among tbe Japanese here to raise the question of wbethac President Rooseelt r s action in sending a fleet round th© world and on a visit to Australia could not be construed as al demonstration, the aim of which was to influence Japanese foreign policy generally, and especially in qfehe laaich (whether the 1925 manoeuvres are not, open to the interpretation that tho United States aims at tbe delimitataom of Japan’s Pacific andi foreign outlook, by indicating that American naval strategy now centres in the western ocean, and not in the Atlantic. JAPAN’S ATTITUDE FOOLISH. American officials deplore the jingoistio fulminations of the Japanese popular Press, and point out that the United States Congress, which must approve of the fleet’s fuel ouUay. for the Australian visit, will probably take the definite attitude that the unwarranted expression of anta-Amencan, sentiment makes essential the manoeuvres and the visit. The whole question would tend to engender undesirable feeling, just as the Japanese opposition to the immigrant law brought forth cowriter-opposition by Congress.