QUICK AMERICAN ACTION

Southland Times, Issue 24499, 29 July 1941, Page 5

QUICK AMERICAN ACTION

JAPANESE SURPRISED (Rec. 9.40 p.m.) NEW YORK, July 28. The Tokyo correspondent of The New York Times says that British assets will be automatically frozen when the official notification of British action against Japan is received. President Roosevelt’s swift action shocked and surprised even the Government, which, though it had taken precautionary measures, had been rather hopefully relying on the past assurances of the former Foreign Minister, M. Yosuke Matsuoka, on America’s passivity and on the influence of the American isolationists. The Minister of Finance, Mr Masatsune Ogura, told the Press that the urgent thing for Japan to do as a result of the economic struggle with Britain and America was to forge ahead towards the establishment of the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.” “It is imperative for us to have a perfect war-time system at the earliest moment possible,” he said. The Tientsin newspaper Yungpao, which frequently reflects the Japanese Army’s views, reported that Chungking and the Chinese communists had I reached a compromise ending the friction. The Reds agreed to support Mar- I shal Chiang Kai-shek to the end .of . placing themselves under Chungking i supervision and disbanding the 4th ; Route Army. Chungking had agreed to subsidize the Reds with 2,000,000 dollars monthly and slightly extend the territory under communist control. The Chungking Military Council has reported a series of war-like Japanese moves, largely in the direction of Siberia. The council said that vast quantities of arms and gasoline and technicians were being sent to Manchukuo and Korea and there were heavy air force concentrations in Manchukuo and bases east of Harbin. FREEZING ORDER The Japanese Finance Ministry announced that the freezing order against United States assets would be eased as much as possible, depending upon the severity with which the United States applies its own freezing order against Japan. Numerous Europeans and Jewish refugees and hundreds of Chinese civilians in Shanghai were manhandled by Japanese marines during a 12-hour reign of terror in the Hongkew section, following the fatal shooting of a Japanese naval officer in the Japaneseoccupied part of the International Settlement, supposedly by a Chinese gunman. The Japanese searched the district house by house, ousting the occupants and forcing them to stand all night in the rain. One thousand persons of both sexes and all nationalities were roughly searched by the Japanese marines. At Chungking the Chinese Foreign Minister, Dr Quo Tai-chi, said Japan’s occupation of Indo-China jeopardized all the other powers’ rights and possessions in the Western Pacific. China would resolutely pursue her resistance in the firm belief that other Powers would not allow this latest Japanese aggression to go unchecked until it was too late and too costly to alter. A San Francisco message says that enlisted voluntarily, a huge fleet of small fishing boats and pleasure craft is being assembled by the Navy at San Francisco, Monterey and other ports to help to guard the coast. Its principal function will be patrolling, augmenting a force of larger vessels.