PACIFIC ISSUES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 November 1939, Page 5

PACIFIC ISSUES

DISCUSSION IN AMERICA. JAPANESE INTENTIONS QUESTIONED. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. WASHINGTON, November 26. A report by the Foreign Policy Association questioning whether Japan will be content to expand her trade pacifically or will seek to take advantage or Europe's preoccupation, says it is believed that Japan will face many special difficulties if she attempts to seize British, French, or Netherlands Far Eastern possession. The report argues that Europeans could not offer effective military resistance. The French, Dutch and the British (including Australian and New Zealand) navies, are small, and Japan could easily cope with the available forces in a major naval engagement, unless the United States were engaged but the occupation of distant territories, and the. maintenance of long communication lines, would be very difficult and would severely strain the Japanese economic structure. The report adds that without doubt the United States would interpret a Japanese attack on the Philippines as a declaration of war, but it is impossible to foresee the United States’ attitude in the event of an attack elsewhere.