Pacific Seaboard Stressed in Choice of Location; Japanese May Note Precautions; Preparedness Shown Washington, Feb. 11.
Diplomats and naval experts agreed here yesterday that the 1940 manceuvres of the United States Fleet, set to begin in the Pacific within sixty days, would have widespread repercussions both in United States defence plans and in international diplomacy.
Informed sources believed that with the present international line-up the manceuvres would be confined to the Pacific for several years, both because the United States is anxious to appear as little warlike in the Atlantic as possible and, conversely, because she is anxious to maintain alert preparedness on the Pacific frontier, Although Navy officials consistently and repeatedly emphasize that the manceuvres have no direct relation ith American diplomatic policy, veteran naval diplomatic observers were convinced. that the manœuvres would play an important Diplomatic role in demonstrating the strength of the proper frontier at the proper time. Thus, the Atlantic manceuvres in 1939 were designed to show United States preparedness to defend the Caribbean, protect the Panama Canal and control the north coast of South America.
This year, Japanese-American relations are conducted on a day-to-day basis and the Pacific manceuvres are undoubtedly full of meaning to Japan, despite assurances that they merely constitute fleet training—United Press.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.