JAPAN’S NEXT MOVE

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 182, 15 May 1939, Page 1

JAPAN’S NEXT MOVE

SO U THWAR.D PU SH EAST INDIES -GROUP LONDON, April 30.—British and French circles in Hong Kong fear that Japan’s next move may be the occupation of the undefended " Matuna Islands, which are' part of the Motherlands East Indies, according to Air. Guenther Stein, a former correspondent in the Ear Elast for the Berliner Tageblatt, who now resides in Hong Kong. “If Japan does not attempt to take them in the immediate future,”' ho writes in ail article in The Spectator, hmy do sp'rduriiig. another acute European crisis or during a European war, when it is unlikely that Britain would, fight for a minor group ot Dutch islands. “Whatever Japan’s immediate intentions are, she has now established advance posts on Hainan, in the 'Gulf of T'ongping, the Spratlev Islands, and? the Paracel Islands, in the South China Sea. The Western Powers may he late in realising that Japanese agitation for a southward push, which went on for years, was meant seriously and that it may materialise while their own defences in those areas are- pitiably weak.” . .Mr. Stein ;add,s. have built several aerodromes'-oh 'Hainan Island, are installing coastal batteries', and importing concrete for fortifications.