WAR NOT WANTED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 August 1941, Page 5

WAR NOT WANTED

BY ANYBODY IN JAPAN CONSUL-GENERAL’S VIEW. SIGNIFICANT SHIPPING DELAYS. SYDNEY, August 10. “Nobody in Japan wants war, any more than you people,” said the new Japanese Consul-General to Australia, Mr Itsuo Goto, on his arrival on Saturday in the Kasima Maru. “If there is going to be war surely my Government would not have sent me here,” he said. “There was no anti-Brittsh feeling when I left Japan. Certainly Japan wants to expand south but by peaceful methods. We want trade with other countries in the Pacific, including the Netherlands East Indies, New Zealand and Australia." When informed that Japanese business people in New Zealand and Australia were preparing to leave for Japan. Mr Goto said: “If there is no trade what is the use of them staying on? One of my chief duties will be to improve trade relations between Japan and Australia.” Mr Goto is accompanied by his wife and daughter. News of the threatening situation in the Pacific was kept from passengers in the Japanese liner Kasima Maru, which reached Sydney on Saturday, eight days overdue. Passengers said the liner turned back off the coast of New Guinea, then cruised in a circle for three days, and lay at anchor for four more. It was blacked out, and all Japanese signs were removed. The captain informed them that he was awaiting instructions from Tokio. During this time three Dutch planes flew overhead, and a party from a Dutch destroyer boarded the liner. News of the war was eagerly sought by passengers on arrival at Sydney. They said all the news bulletins on the liner were from German sources, and according to these Russia’s collapse was imminent. The passengers included 53 Poles who escaped across Russia to Japan after the Nazi invasion. One Pole travelled as a stowaway. The San Francisco correspondent of the Tokio newspaper “Miyako Shimbun” says that the United States is storing large quantities of oil in Australia for American warships as part of the British and United States plan to encircle Japan. The newspaper proceeded to give details of alleged sailings of six American tankers on August 4 and claimed that the storage of American oil reserves in Australia was significant.