THREE RISKS TO JAPAN

Southland Times, Issue 23389, 22 December 1937, Page 5

THREE RISKS TO JAPAN

Further “Incidents”

Like Panay

AMERICAN FINANCIAL HELP PRECLUDED

(United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received December 21, 9.55 pin.) NEW YORK, December 21. There are three "unmistakable risks to Japan in the policy she is pursuing, says The New York Times in an editorial. They are: (1) The possibility of more “incidents” like the Panay. (2) The possibility that her financial resources will prove unequal to the huge task set by her military leaders. (3) Even if the first two risks are avoided she will find that she has irreparably harmed herself by destroying the indispensable Chinese market for her goods.

“Japan is badly misreading the facts if she believes for one moment that American opinion will permit action on the part of our banks and commercial interests to help fasten Japan’s hold on property stolen from the Chinese people,” says The New York Times. JAPANESE PUBLIC IN THE DARK RECALL OF OFFICER NOT YET PUBLISHED LONDON, December 20. Though withdrawing the denial that Japanese soldiers attacked and boarded the Panay the spokesman of the Japanese Foreign Office (Mr Tatsuo Kawai) said it was not established that they had fired on the Panay’s officers. No hint of this sinister aspect of the affairs appears in the Japanese Press, says the Tokyo correspondent of The Times. . The shocking fact that Japanese naval airmen attacked a Japanese army launch cannot be divulged, and the Japanese public only knows that an American gunboat was accidentally sunk and several British gunboats mistakenly fired upon in the heat of battle, adds ihe correspondent. The recall of Rear-Admiral Neizo Mitsunami is still not published, and rumours that six naval airmen were court martialled cannot be confirmed. It is probable that some days will elapse before the British and American Notes are answered. The Japanese findings about the sinking of the Panay, as announced at a Press conference by Major-General Harada, differed so widely from the survivors’ accounts that one of the journalists asked whether Major-Gen-eral Harada and the survivors were discussing the same incident. Among the pumerous points the correspondents disputed were Major-Gen-eral Harada’s denial that the army boats fired on the Panay and his assertion that the Panay was moving when she was bombed, as the survivors reported that she was anchored. Major-General Harada said that the Panay’s guns fired three times at a motor launch, which was not hit. The survivors declare that the gunboat’s guns remained covered by canvas throughout. HUNDREDS OF LIVES SAVED BY TUG (Received December 21, 11.35 p.m.) LONDON, December 21. The Shanghai correspondent of The Times relates an incident accompanying the bombing of British shipping at Wuhu on December 5, when Captain J. W. Hurst, of Sunderland, an Admiralty pilot, saved hundreds of lives. Captain Hurst jammed his tug between the blazing steamer Tuckwo and a junk in order to form a bridge leading ashore. His action enabled 500 passengers and the crew of the Tuckwo to reach safety.