OVERTURES OF RUSSIA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 87, 6 July 1943, Page 4

OVERTURES OF RUSSIA

WHEN the Swauve Japanese Ambassador to the Kremlin suggested to the president of the Soviet Republic that our Russian Allies should seek to negotiate a separate peace with Nazi Germany, we could suspect that there was a deeper reason behind the polished advances, than mere humanitarianism. To-day's news' would seem to bring the answer. Having failed to overcome the deep and burning sense of bitterness and hate felt by the average Russian for all things German, Japan has at long last found herself compelled to pay some attention to the desperate situation of her Axis partners e'er the hammer-blows of an Allied invasion of the European continent fall. Swiftly she has diverted her Manchurian garrison forces from the turbulent Chinese provinces to the Russian border. If Russia cannot be coerced out of the war she must be at least diverted from her pending offensive: in fear of which the German High Command trembles. Headlines throughout the world proclaim the latest Japanese move, the magnitude of which is claimed will make the South Pacific offensive appear as a, side show. The senior Axis partners are. definitely for the first time in danger of actual collapse and Japan cannot afford to stand by while the death blows art* being dealt. At least she can relieve the pressure on the Russian front, and this she no doubt intends to do in answer to the anguished entreaties of the cornered Dictator. It is in situations such as these that Tojo, must begin to read signs of the writing on the wall. Unless the Dictatorships win, it is the end of Japah, irrespective of what transpires afterwards between the partners in the unholy alliance. Therefore it was preferable: to come to Hitler's assistance rather than invite the desperate alternative of threes fold defeat. Thus Japan to-day stands at Russia's back door, the mask of friendship trust aside and all the traditional enmity and hatred of the Russian Empire reflected in Her mein and attitude. Her action has added yet another freak move to the tremendous conflagration which is du<* to break out at any moment.