AMERICAN TANKER AT VLADIVOSTOCK

Southland Times, Issue 24533, 6 September 1941, Page 7

AMERICAN TANKER AT VLADIVOSTOCK

NEW YORK, September 4.

Unarmed and flying the American flag the first tanker carrying American petrol to Russia has arrived at Vladivostok. The United States is now awaiting Japanese reactions to the move. Another American tanker is expected to enter Japanese waters before the week-end. The New York Herald-Tribune says: “Japanese interference with American tankers bound for Vladivostok alone would not bring war with the United States, but <jit would bring RussianAmerican resentment.” Commenting on the Japanese proposal for the establishment of an ocean “safety zone” around Japan, the New York Herald-Tribune says: "The democracies might take a leaf out of the Japanese book. The British and Dutch might agree that Japanese merchant shipping which sought to navigate any passage between Singapore and Australia would be out of bounds, while the United States, New Zealand, and Australia might declare that the Pacific, east of a line drawn from the Aleutian Islands through Hawaii and Samoa to the Antipodes, was a self-defence zone.” A Domei News Agency broadcast announced that the Thai Government had given Japan an assurance that Thai troops had been completely withdrawn from the demilitarized zone on the IndoChina frontier.