SAID TO BE ON BRINK OF WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 September 1941, Page 5

SAID TO BE ON BRINK OF WAR

Admission in Washington CONVERSATIONS CONTINUE IN TENSE ATMOSPHERE (By Telogrnph. Press Association. —Copyright.) WASHINGTON. September 3. It is now widely admitted here that American and Japan are on the brink of war. Whether they fight appears to depend, first, on the capacity of America to lift her arms production to such a peak that Japan will quail before it; and, secondly, having regard to the internal struggle now racking Japan, whether she will fight the democracies or settle her differences by peaceful negotiation. The conversations between Japan and America continue in Washington in an atmosphere of tension. Both the Secretary of State, Mr Cordell Hull, and the Japanese Ambassador, Admiral Nomura, still hope for a limited understanding, but it is feared that the army at home may repudiate any concessions Admiral Nomura makes and then take over the Government and begin a reign of terror. The “New York Times’’ says Japan faces the greatest crisis in her history. Her trade is smashed and her armies bogged or encircled. It adds: “If Japan quits the Axis we can still reach an understanding, but we are no longer willing to buy her off.’’