FATAL BLUNDER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20108, 30 November 1939, Page 5

FATAL BLUNDER

HITLER’S SOVIET PACT HOPE OF VICTORY LOST JAPANESE OPINION LONDON, Nov. 24. Hitler’s ill-considered Russian pact has destroyed the possibility of a German victory, in the opinion of Admiral Ryozo Nakamura, whom the Tokio correspondent of The Times characterises as “one of t'he clearest thinkers in the Japanese Navy.” The Times points out that Admiral Nakamura writes detachedly in Japan’s interests, his views appearing in a magazine entitled Pacific. He is also circulating a pamphlet with the evident intention of supporting the Japanese policy of neutrality. Admiral Nakamura emphasises the point that Britain’s potential enemies before the war were Japan, in the Pacific; Italy, in the Mediterranean; and Germany, in the North Sea, with Spain supplying bases for the Axis Powers, thus tying Britain’s hands. “But,” he adds, “the Russo-German pact instantly changed the situation. Japan and Spain chose neutrality, and Italy inaction. Thus Britain’s naval problem was reduced to meeting German guerillaism in the North Sea.” Britain Can Be Confident Britain can now be absolutely confident of victory.

Admiral Nakamura methodically examines whether air power can win. Answering in the negative, lie urges Japan to settle the China incident on the 'basis that the European war will be finished within a year. The correspondent points out that the institute does not propose ’ that Japan, in order to achieve her South Seas policy, should use the opportunities of the European war to fish in troubled waters. It only aims at peaceful economic expansion. The article expressed only the writer's view, the context showing tha't he favoured peaceful economic expansion. The institute desires it to be known that nothing is farther from the minds of its members than aggression.

The correspondent has reported a disclaimer 'by the Institute of the Pacific, a Japanese society, of views expressed in an article published in its official organ last week. The article said: —

“The South Seas (belong to the Far East, and Japan is entitled to a share in the wealth of these regions, which Europe snatched while Japan was isolated. It is sometimes proposed that Dutch oil be forcibly seized, but other methods can be tried at first.”