The Archive · 1939

Annoys Japan

Spokesman Expresses Dissatisfaction of U.S. Defence Plan

Tokyo, Jan. 12. he Japanese Navy today expressed dissatisfaction with United States Navy plans to fortify Guam Island, by the midst of the Japanese man-Gated islands 3,000 miles west of Hawaii. fication plans for Guam, recommended to the United States Congress last week by a special naval committee headed by Rear-Admiral Arthur Hepburn, are a "grave matter concern" io Japan, a spokesman the Japanese Navy said.

The United States Navy proposal was that the island be converted into a strong air and submarine base capable of defending the Philippines.

val experts estimate that the proposed fortifications and harbour Gevelopment would cost more than $200,000,000.

The Japanese Navy spokesman also said today that Japan had not yet received a reply from the United States to the Japanese request that Americap authorities investigate reports that an officer of the U.S.S. Luzon had "disparaged the Japanese Navy." The spokesman referred to reports that a Luzon officer had revealed that Japanese warships escorting the Luzon to Shanghai last month had fired aimlessly into the banks of the Yangtze River in an apparent attempt to convince Americans aboard the Luzon that the area was over-run by Chinese guerillas which rendered the Yangtze unsafe for navigation. The Luzon officer was reported to have said that no life could be seen on the river banks where the Japanese ships were firing.—United Press.

Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.

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