WAR PREPARATIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 November 1941, Page 5

WAR PREPARATIONS

CONTINUED IN JAPAN BIG MOVEMENT OF TROOPS TO SOUTH CHINA. STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. LONDON, November 14. Continued war preparations are reported in Japan. Men hitherto exempted in the last ten classes called up (since 1930) are to be liable for military service. Meantime tanks, artillery and aircraft are reported to be taking part in big movements of troops in the Canton area in South China. Large numbers of transports have been seen going up the Canton River. A Saigon report states that two crack Japanese regiments have been sent -io Hainan Island, off the South China coast, making a total of 11,000 troops on that island. WITHDRAWAL OF MARINES. A Reuter message from Washington states that in announcing the withdrawal of American Marines from Shanghai and other Chinese ports, President Roosevelt refused to say whether the withdrawal had any bearing on the efforts that were being made to reach an understanding with Japan. He pointed out that the Marines had been engaged in protecting a very small number of Americans and- that most of the United States citizens in China were missionaries stationed in inland areas and not in the coastal towns. The President said he thought the American people would realise how serious the Far Eastern situation had become. He hoped that a conflict would be avoided but it was a matter of pure guesswork how that was to be done. Mr Roosevelt said he had made no plans yet to meet the special Japanese envoy, Mr Kurusu, who is expected to reach Washington tomorrow. Mr Kurusu said he was ready to offer all assistance to relieve the difficult situation. He hoped to break [through the line and make a touch down. ADMIRAL NOMURA ■' ■■" I REPORT OF RESIGNATION DENIED. FAR ’EASTERN NAVAL POSITION. LONDON, November 14. The British United Press Washington correspondent reports that the Japanese Embassy denies that the Ambassador, Admiral Nomura, has resigned. Major Fielding Eliot, in an article in the “New York Herald-Tribune,” predicts that Singapore will probably get six British battleships and two or three aircraft-carriers as a result of American naval assistance in the Atlantic. This force, he says, would not be enough with which to attack the Japanese fleet in its home waters, but the Japanese would not then be able to seek out British ships near Singapore and destroy them, because of English and Dutch shore-based bombers and submarines. “Japanese doom will be sealed by the presence of these ships,” he says. “She will be able to keep only a precarious link with the Asiatic mainland, and her only means of relief would be to attack and destroy the superior American fleet, and then turn on the British fleet. Japan is thus caught in a trap of her own making. She has not the remotest chance of victory on land, sea or air if she resorts to arms.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation in Los Angeles seized from Japanese organisations, including the Japanese Chamber of Commerce, a large quantity of records containing receipts for funds sent to the Japanese army and navy. BRITISH SUBJECTS EVACUATED FROM JAPAN. LONDON, November 14. A Singapore message states that the Japanese evacuation ship Asama Maru has arrived there bringing a number of British subjects. She is to sail on Saturday with 450 Japanese evacuees for Manila, where she will pick up more Japanese. It is reported that all the Japanese residents in Kuantan, on the east coast of Malaya, have been ordered to evacuate within a fortnight. This move is one of many taken to clear vital east coast areas of possible troublemakers.