JAPANESE SCHEME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 January 1943, Page 4

JAPANESE SCHEME

TO KIDNAP PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT PRIOR TO PEARL HARBOUR. REPORTED BY NEW YORK NEWSPAPER. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.0 p.m.) NEW YORK, January 5. The Japanese did their diplomatic utmost to so manoeuvre the peace discussion between Japan and America that President Roosevelt would have been in the hands of the Japanese Navy when Pearl Harbour yvas attacked, the “New York Post” says. This was revealed in the State Department’s White Book. ~

The Japanese urged that President Roosevelt and Prince Konoye should have a frank exchange of views aboard a Japanese warship in 'the Pacific. The Secretary of State (Mr Cordell Hull) received the suggestion coolly, although the Atlantic meeting between Mr Churchill and President Roosevelt had made the proposal technically innocent enough. The then United States Ambassador to Japan (Mr Joseph Grew) later told Mr Hull that Prince Konoye favoured the meeting, to which he was prepared to send a full admiral and the Army’s Vice-Chief of Staff. The White Book does not reveal whether Mr Hull suspected treachery, but it says that the fact that the military element responsible for Japanese aggression would have been heavily represented was a factor in the American Government’s disapproval. The Japanese, nevertheless, continued to urge the meeting throughout September.