PACIFIC TENSION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21784, 25 October 1932, Page 7

PACIFIC TENSION

JAPAN WATCHING AMERICA WAR FEARS AT HONOLULU. LONDON, October 12. Sir Pcrcival Phillips, in a cablegram from Tokio to the Daily Mail, says Japau is watching closely the continued concentration of the American Navy at Honolulu. - " There is no disguising the fact," says the writer, "that Japan's relations with America overshadow the League of Nations' attitude to Japan. The Japanese ask, if America opposes war, why does she insist on maintaining a great fleet within striking distance of Japan? " *' I found the American community at Honolulu full of rumours of the possibility of a war which they believe Japan will suddenly start in the Pacific," says Sir Percival. " This definite tension is neither healthy nor reassuring. " The Japanese really fear aggression. The Japanese attitude at Geneva on November 14, which is the date to which the discussion on the Lytton report was postponed, will be uncompromising.

" Th§y are gravely concerned, however, with the course, that America may force the League of Nations to take."

Sir Percival Phillips is one of the bestknown newspaper correspondents in the world. He has been a war correspondent since 1897. He has also travelled extensively with British royalty ou world tours. Although he was born in America,' he was created a K.B.E. in 1920.