ATTACK RUSSIA

Timaru Herald, Volume CLV, Issue 22790, 14 January 1944, Page 5

ATTACK RUSSIA

Hitler Trying To Goad

Japan

“Pearl Harbour” Blitz On

Vladivostock

N.Z.P.A.—Special Australian Correspondent (Rcc. 7.50 p.m.) LONDON, Jan, 12. Berlin’s diplomatic machinery has opened a campaign to goad the Japanese into attacking Russia with “Pearl Harbour” treachery, says the Istanbul correspondent of the “Daily Express. Hitler apparently believes that only a sudden Japanese blow against Russia can avert a terrible catastrophe for his armies in Russia. Hitler is trying to instil a fear in the Japanese that if they do not strike immediately, Russia, with Britain and America, will make a concerted attack on the heart of the Japanese empire. The German Foreign Office has warned Count Oshima, the Japanese Ambassador to Berlin, that M. Stalin’ has agreed to attack in the Far East as soon as the second front opens in the West. Hitler is playing one of his last aces by urging Japan to attempt a blitz on Vladivostock. There is every indication, from reports which have leaked out about the German dealings with the Japanese, that Tokio is most reluctant to end its attitude of armed neutrality towards Russia. The correspondent adds that he has the strongest evidence that Japanese diplomats, in a hope of maintaining this uneasy neutrality, have not scrupled in the last few weeks to pass on to Russia military information concerning troop movements and dispositions which must have been of great practical value to the Russian High Command.