SECOND THOUGHTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 July 1941, Page 6

SECOND THOUGHTS

MANIFESTED IN JAPAN

UNCERTAINTY REGARDING GERMANY.

KONOYE SAYS AXIS PACT IS DEFENSIVE.

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) TOKIO, June 30.

Japan would not be a partner in any German plan for world conquest, said Prince Konoye (Prime Minister) in an interview with -a correspondent of the United Press of America. “The Japan-Axis pact,” he added, “is a defensive measure, designed to keep Japan and the United States out of the European war. Japan is most anxious to maintain friendly relations with .the United States. 1 hope the Russian-German war will not aggravate JapaneseAmerican relations.”

A. “New York Times” correspondent, Mr Tolischus, says thaT'as a result of the stubborn Russian resistance and still indecisive nature of the RussianGerman war, caution, is beginning to creep into Japanese Press comments in respect both to German claims and demands for immediate Japanese action. The “Yomiuri” sees the possibility of a Russian-British flanking movement in the Near East and says the strengthening of the British position in that region points to a check in the German war with the Soviet and'a prolongation of hostilities.

“Japan will be faced with grave problems if the Axis hegemony extends across the Urals into Asiatic Russia,” says the Army organ “Kokumin.” The Russian-German war has made necessary a cleai- definition of the geographical limits of Japan’s prosperity sphere in East Asia. Germany must have-started hostilities with Russia in the belief that the latter should be placed under Axis influence. If the Axis sphere was to include Russia, the Near East and Africa, there was no reason why Germany and Italy should not recognise Japan’s influence over India, Australia, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Russian territory east of the Urals.”