One of the hitches in the path of the Kremlin's plans, the newspaper said, was the attitude of the United States, which was believed to be assisting the Soviet Union to build this big navy. The United States the daily opined, was likely to abandon the idea because of the outbreak of the European war and the German-Soviet rapprochement.
Moreover, the "Japan Times" continued, the American public was unlikely to view Moscow's recent attitude in a favourable light, while the efficiency of wartime American heavy industry will be taxed to capacity, with nothing to spare for the Soviet Navy.
"An other (and a more serious) obstacle is that even if the Soviet Union should succeed in completing her elaborate naval programme, Germany, who has reason to be greatly concerned about the Baltic Sea, will never observe it as an idle spectator.
"The more formidable the Soviet Navy grows, the more will be the chances for Germany to have friction with the Soviets in the future. In this particular aspect, the Soviet naval programme has a potential possibility of creating a situation far from what the leaders of the Kremlin might the paper caneluded—
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.