TO SEIZE MR. ROOSEVELT

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLXII, Issue 15242, 7 January 1943, Page 2

TO SEIZE MR. ROOSEVELT

JAP. PLAN FAILS United Press Assn—By Electric Telegraph—Co pyrigh t NEW YORK, Jan Th© Japanese did their diplomatic utmost to manoeuvre the peine discussions between Japan, and America so that President Roosevelt would be in the hands of the Japanese Navy w’hen Pearl Harbour was attacked Th© New York * ‘Poet. * says that is revealed l n jth© State Department’s White Book. Th© Japanese urged that President Roosevelt and Prince Konoye, then Prime Minister of Japan, should have a frank exchange of views on board a Japanese warship in the Pacific. Tlie Secretary <»£ State, Mr Cordell Hull, received the suggestion coolly, though th© Atlantic meeting of Mr Churchill and President Roosevelt made the proposal technically innocent enough. The U.S. Ambassador to Tokio. Mr Grew, later told Mr Hull that Prince Konoye favoured the meeting to which he was prepared to send a full admiral and the army's vioe-Chief of Staff. The Whit© Book does not reveal whether Mr Hull suspected treachery, but says the fact that the military element responsible ior Japanese aggression would have been heavily represented w»s a factor in the Government’s disapproval of the plan. The Japanese neveitheless continued to urge tlie meeting throughout September