SEA WARFARE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 January 1942, Page 3

SEA WARFARE

PRESENCE OF JAPANESE NEAR ALASKA SUSPECTED BY AMERICAN NAVY. MERCHANT SHIPS WARNED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, December 31. A United States Navy communique says: “In the Far East submarine operations against enemy surface craft are continuing. Reports that a United States destroyer and two submarines were sunk in the period December 26-28 are without foundation. “In the central Pacific the situation in respect to Midway Island remains unchanged. There have been no further attacks since the last reported. “In the Eastern Pacific Japanese vessels are suspected of being in the vicinity of Kodiak Island, off Southern Alaska. All merchant ships have been warned.” Nineteen survivors who landed in New York last night revealed that the United States 6000-ton freighter Sagadahoc was torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic on December 23. TEST YET TO COME JAPANESE PREMIER WARNS PEOPLE. FOREIGN MINISTER’S BOAST. NEW YORK, December 31. The Tokio radio said that the Premier, General Tojo, and Admiral Shimada, Minister of the Navy, in New Year messages, both declared that the war would be a long one. General Tojo said it was inevitable that the war would be protracted, and Admiral Shimada urged moderation in weighing the news of Japanese victories, adding: “The full-dress war is yet to come.” » The Foreign Minister, Mr Togo, however, declared that it would not be long before the evils of AngloAmerican Imperialism were liquidated from East Asia. He asserted that Japan’s initial successes, the contributions from Manchukuo and the collaboration of Thailand greatly favoured Japan’s prospect of victory.