POLITICAL OVERTURN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 October 1941, Page 5

POLITICAL OVERTURN

EXPECTED IN JAPAN MATSUOKA MAY RESUME OFFICE. MAN WHO LED HIS COUNTRY INTO AXIS. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) NEW YORK, October 1. . The overthrow of Prince Konoye’s moderate Cabinet and the re-emergence of the former Foreign iHinister. Mr Matsuoka. are expected as signs multiply that the talks between .hipan and the United States have reached a stalemate, says the “New York 'firnes’’ correspondent in the Far East, Mr Hallett Abend, who is now in Manila.

Prince Konoye will probably survive a Cabinet reshuffle. Mr. Abend adds, while Mr. Matsuoka, whose policy led Japan into the Axis pact, will return with strong extremist support. It is significant that Tokio announced that Mr. Matsuoka is now regaining his health, the loss of which was given out as the reason for his resignation from the Cabinet. Meanwhile, informed observers in the Far East express amazement at the persistence of the belief that the Japanese moderates are able to influence the country’s policy. On the contrary, it is held that the recent evidence of Japanese reasonableness has been merely camouflage by the militarists to prevent the necessity of fighting a major Power in defence of Japan’s earlier conquests. They would agree to an understanding with the United States only on terms safeguarding all the advances made in Asia. The “Herald-Tribune’s" Tokio correspondent says the Japanese are expressing anxiety at the three-Power talks in Moscow having been extended to include the Far East. This, it is claimed, increases the difficulty of attaining a United States-Japanese agreement. HUNAN CAMPAIGN JAPANESE RETREATING IN DISORDER. ACCORDING TO CHINESE DESPATCHES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) SHANGHAI, October 1. According to the Associated Press, Chinese "military despatches assert that the Japanese in the Hunan Province are retreating in great disorder after suffering heavy losses. The retreat is described as a debacle many times worse than that of 1939.