LITTLE SURPRISE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 258, 28 September 1940, Page 7

LITTLE SURPRISE.

REACTION IN LONDON. JAPAN’S POOR DEAL. • (British Official Wireless.) (Rec. 10.20 a.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 27. The announcement on the German radio that h military pact has been signed among Germany, • -Italy and Japan lias caused little surprise in London ill view of the flood of propaganda from German and, as usual, from the faithfully-echoing Italian sources which preceded it.

No official comment is. offered in London on the pact. The authorities here at present are dependent for information on public pronouncements from Berlin, although reports of the sanctioning of the alliance by the Emperor of Japan 'had prepared the way for such an announcement. Although authoritative British comment for the present is withheld, it is noted that the ecstatic effusion with which Berlin greeted the development i is in marked contrast to the reserved comment from Japan. While there is . no inclination here to assume that t'his apparent lack of enthusiasm denotes coolness in Japan towards the new move, unofficial observers of the general situation in London find it difficult to discover what Japan may expect to get out of the agreement. It is, in their view, equally obscure what raw materials or other assistance can. be contributed by Germany and Italy, who are now putting forward the maximum effort against tile British Empire. NO POSITION TO HELP.

The reference to the Japanese “new order for Asia” appears to be purely academic. There is, indeed, no sign that Japan needs German and Italian assistance in promoting the plans s'he has conceived independently. Neither Germany nor Italy, in fact, is in a position to make any contribution whatever.

The agreement, in short, appears to have been designed to have tlie maximuni. propaganda, if not material, value for Germany and Italy, but its utility to Japan is extremely doubtful, and commentators here find it difficult to -resist the conclusion that Japan has been hurried into an arrangement which can bring her only embarrassment of undertakings she- will 'nave to carry, on alone. It is noted that Article 3 of the agreement provides that Germany, Italy, and Japan agree to collaborate on all questions, and to aid each other by all economic and military means if one of the three signatories is attacked by a nation not taking part in the war—a provision designed presumably to intimidate the United States, as it is difficult to suggest any other Power to which it could possibly refer. ... , There is a natural inclination on the part of the Press to read this article in relation to recent moves at Washington, and notably last night s announcement that an embargo had been placed from October 15 on the export of iron ,and steel scrap to all nations save those of the AVestern Hemisphere and Britain. This announcement was accompanied by the news that the United States Metal Reserve Company had agreed to buy £7,500,u00 worth of tungsten from China, and that tile Import and Export Bank, another official institution, is to lend China £6 250000 sterling, lhe AVasliington. messages add that President Roosevelt is deeply preoccupied with the i' »r Eastern problem.*

INDO-CHINA AGREEMENT,

TOKIO, Sept. 27. The Foreign Office has released a joint Freneh-Japanese communique relative to the Indo-China agreement under which the Japanese Government has given the French Government an.assurance that it will'respect the rights and interests of France in East Asia, especially the territorial integrity of French Indo-China and French sovereignty over all parts of -the Union , of Indo-China, while the French Government agreed to afford the Japanese Army and Navy special facilities which are necessary for the prosecution of the latter’s military operations. A Chungking message says minor clashes are taking place between the Chinese and Japanese forces on the' Kwangsi-Tiido-China border. , It is reported from Kwangsi Province in (South China) that the Japanese casualties were 1000 in the Dongdang clash. ~: : ■ -