AXIS BOMBAST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24792, 17 December 1941, Page 7

AXIS BOMBAST

JAPAN SWELLS CHORUS TURNING POINT OF WORLD (Rec. 1 a.m.) LONDON, Dec. 16. A Tokio radio broadcast states that the Japanese Foreign Minister, Admiral Togo, addressing Axis diplomats at a luncheon commemorating the signing of the Tripartite Pact, said: "The world is facing an historic turning point. Germany and Italy are reaping,the fruits of victory in Europe and Africa, and Japan is now driving British and American influences from East Asia. It is the will of God that wrong cannot prevail over right; therefore, the outcome of the present war is very clear." The Japanese Army headquarters •announced that a large number of army planes raided bases* in Burma and Malaya, inflicting severe damage. It said that two transports were sunk and another heavily damaged in a raid off the north-western coast of Malaya. The Japanese also claimed the destruction of 100 trucks, and added that Japanese troops had over-run Kowloon, and that "it will only be a matter of days before the Rising *Sun flies over Hongkong." The Japanese Imperial Headquarters claimed that an entire British mechanised division was destroyed in Malaya. Imperial Headquarters asserted that Japanese units attacked the American Army Headquarters at Tarlac, 70 miles north-west of Manila, on Monday, and destroyed the army, barracks. : Japanese headquarters also declared that the sinking of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse virtually obliterated Britain's Far Eastern Fleet. The Tokio spokesman stated that "Enemy submarines have already appeared in Japanese waters."