JAPAN AND RUSSIA

Waikato Times, Volume 194, Issue 22245, 14 January 1944, Page 3

JAPAN AND RUSSIA

GERMANS URGE ATTACK LONboN, 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 only a sudden Japanese blow against Russia can avert a terrible catastrophe for his armies in Russia. Hitler is trying to instil the fear in the Japanese that if they do not strike immediately Russia, with Britain and America, will together attack the heart of the Japanese Em.pire. The German Foreign Office has warned the Japanese Ambassador to Germany, Lieutenant-General Hiroshi Oshima, that Marshal 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 in urging Japan to attempt a sudden attack on the important base and naval of Vladivostok. There is every indication, however, from reports wnich have leaked out about German dealings with the Japanese that Tokio is most reluctant to end the attitude of armed neutrality toward Russia. The correspondent adds that he has the strongest evidence that Japanese diplomats, in the hope of maintaining this uneasy neutrali%, have not scrupled in the past 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.