MENACE OF JAPAN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 January 1939, Page 6

MENACE OF JAPAN

LORD STRASOLgI’S VIEW. NEW ZEALAND’S POSITION. “As part of the British Empire and as a Pacific country, New Zealand certainly has need to worry about Japan as a (possible aggressor,” said Lord Strabolgi when asked in an interview in Christchurch whether New Zealand would be justified in looking on the Japanese as a likely menace. Lord Strabolgi, who commented on the Way in which the Japanese menace loomed so large as one came east, emphasised at the same time that Russia constituted a counterforce against aggression from Japan. “I find, as one comes east, that the Japanese menace looms larger,” Lord Strabolgi said. “In Europe, it is what the dictator powers of German and Italy will do next that is the question. But out here, and as one comes east before reaching here, it is the Japanese and their ultimate aims that people ask about. Now that is quite understandable because the forward school of the Japanese militarists make no secret that their aim, summed up in two Words is ‘world domination.’ “A FORMIDABLE MENACE.” “At present the Japanese are well entangled in China,” Lord Strabolgi said, “and are likely to be so entangled for some time. But if Japan succeeds in her objective there, then, when she has had time to recover she will be a very formidable menace. In that case, there is fortunately a counter-force represented by Russia, of whom the Japanese are very properly afraid.

“As long as' Russia is strong and friendly to the British Empire, she can hold the Japanese in check. But orte of the extraordinary mysteries of the high policy of the present Government in London is why it seems to go out of the way to cold-shoulder and rebuff Russia. That was particularly noticeable last September, during the so-call-ed crisis. Another of the mysteries is why that Government is allowing the Fascist powers to establish themselves in Spain, right on our Mediterranean and Atlantic trade routes.” USE OF SUBMARINES. Lord Strabolgi elaborated on his suggestion made earlier in his tour of the Dominion that New Zealand should make use of submarines as an essential item of her defence plans. “I think that you have need of submarines, and unless there is some reason of which I am not aware, I cannot understand why you have not got them,” he said. “You certainly have harbours substantial enough for the necessary bases. The submarine is peculiarly a Weapon of the weaker naval power and for a certain period in the case of War you might be in a position of local inferiority; then the submarine is very useful as a defensive weapon and can be worked in well with aircraft. You would need only a small fleet of them in any case.”