“Nothing Can Stop Us”
NEW YORK, Oct. 26.—Tokio correspondent of the New York Times says that, addressing 200 higher officials at Osaka, the Japanese Prime Minister (General Tojo) said:—
“With the world environment changing so quickly, we cannot tell what is in store for us at any minute, but the Empire stands solemnly on the national policy which has been reiterated time and again.
“We must go on to develop in ever-expanding progression. There is no retreat. Naturally, difficulties will arise but if one hundred million people merge into one iron solidarity and go forward, nothing can stop us.
“If this state of preparedness is completed, diplomacy will become an easy affair. Wars can be fought with ease. Nothing can surprise me; no international pressure can disturb me. Unity makes people one and whole, and it will solve all problems.”
In an interview, General Tojo urged the nation to trust the Government as a person trusts the driver of a taxicab. He said that naturally the Government must let the people know where it was leading them, but the people should leave it to the Government’s discretion to do what it thought best.
Blockade Urged
Agreeing with the statement of the U.S. Secretary of the Navy (Colonel Knox) that the Pacific situation is extremely strained, Senator Pepper, the Interventionist leader to-day proposed an immediate American blockade of Japan as an answer to Tokyo’s expansion plans.
Americans are not anxious for a collision anywhere, declared the New York Herald Tribune, but if Colonel Knox inadvertently forces Japan’s true intentions into the open, it will not be an unwelcome development.
The Hong-Kong correspondent of the New York Tines says that the Japanese are reported to be landing considerable military supplies at Sancho Island, near Chungshan, and to be enlarging the Sancho Island airfield. The Japanese are also considerably reinforcing Swatow, although they claim to have mopped up the remaining Chinese in that area.
Army News, Darwin, NT, Australia, October 30, 1941
