“KEG OF DYNAMITE”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 December 1941, Page 5

“KEG OF DYNAMITE”

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S LETTER TO JAPANESE EMPEROR. LAST EFFORT FOR PEACE. WASHINGTON, December 7. The text of President Roosevelts message to the Emperor of Japan before the attack was as follows: “The people of the United States have hoped for a termination of the Sino- Japanese conflict and for peace m the Pacific, enabling the many diverse peoples to exist side by side without fear of invasion. They have also hoped for alleviation of the armaments burden and the resumption of commerce “I am certain it will be clear to your Majesty, as it is to me, that America and Japan, in seeking these objectives, should agree to eliminate any form of military threat. ' “During the past few weeks it has become clear that Japanese forces have been sent to Indo-Chma in such large numbers as to create a reasonable doubt that the concentration of it is not defensive in character. It is now only reasonable that the people of the Philippines, East Indies, Malaya and Thailand are asking whether Japan is preparing an attack. lam sure your Majesty understands that such a fear is legitimate. “I am also sure you will understand why the United States people look askance at the establishment of ’bakes capable of offence. It is clear that a continuance of such a situation is unthinkable. People cannot sit permanently on a keg of dynamite. ... “There is absolutely, no thought by the United States of invading IndoChina if every Japanese soldier and sailor is withdrawn from there. I have no doubt the East Indies, Thailand, China and Malaya will undertake to refrain from invading Indo-China if the Japanese troops are withdrawn, thus assuring peace in the South Pacific. >\ '“I hope your Majesty will give thought in this emergency to ways of dispelling the dark clouds. I am confident that both of us, for the sake of our own peoples and humanity, have a sacred duty to restore our traditional amity and prevent further death and destruction.” MR HULLISPEAKS OUT. The State Department announced that Mr Hull informed the Japanese envoys that the document presented by them was crowded with infamous falsehoods and distortions. After reading the Japanese reply, Mr Hull said to Admiral Nomura: “I must say that in all my conversations with you, during the last hine months, I have never uttered one word of untruth. This is absolutely borne out by the record. "In all my fifty years of public service 1 have never seen a document more crowded ,with infamous falsehoods and distortions —and on a scale so huge. 1 did. not imagine till today that any Government on this planet I. was capable of uttering them."