PRESSURE ON CHINA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 November 1940, Page 3

PRESSURE ON CHINA

NAZI ENVOY GOING TO FAR EAST PROPOSALS TO CHIANG KAI-SHEK. FOR “HONOURABLE” PEACE WITH JAPAN. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, November 26. • A Shanghai message says it is rumoured that Hitler’s personal representative, Herr Stahmers, is en route to the Far East to renew pressure on Tokio for the resumption of a southward thrust.

Simultaneously, Germans in Chungking are reported to have intensified their efforts to persuade General Chiang Kai-shek that the democracies are unable to save the Chungking Government and consequently General Chiang should accept an honourable peace with Japan, subsequently cooperating with Japan in a southward drive aimed at Singapore and the Dutch Indies in an effort to dismember the British Empire. It is reliably reported that a group of prominent American business men in Shanghai have drafted a message to the State Department urging a credit of 200,000.000 dollars to Chungking and immediate other assurances of the utmost American aid in an effort to offset German pressure in Chungking. Tokio reports that Admiral Kiyoshi Hasegawa has been appointed Gover-nor-General of Formosa, replacing Admiral Seizo Kobayashi. Admiral Hasegawa is the first active admiral to be assigned to Formosa since 1918 and consequently commentators are attaching importance to the appointment in connection with Japan’s southward policy. A message from Hankow says that the Japanese army headquarters in Central China issued a statement that the Japanese army has launched a fresh offensive to the east and west of the Han River as a result of “further activity by Chinese forces.”