The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-11-26

States was close to taking action against Japan action which might have told an entirely dif- ferent story in the Orient.
 This happened at the time of the Panay incident.
 It is an interesting fact that
 the navy had advance notice
 that some incident against
 American forces was about to
 take place. They did not know
 it was to be an attack on an
 American gunbOat on the
 Yangtze, rather expecetd a
 wholesale attack on American
 marines then guarding Shanghai
 under tense conditions.
 Naval intelligence had received word through sources which call- not be revealed here that the Japanese military were planning a test of American public opinion and the policy of the Roosevelt administration, by deliberately att tacking U. s. naval forces.
 Since then, naval and d1plO-
 matic strategists also have come
 to the conclusion that Germany
 and Italy were in on the secret,
 may actually have had 8 hand
 in it.
 Before that time, it will be re membered, the dictator coun- tries considered American foreigr policy a major question mark. They knew they could count on Britain and France to talk much but do nothing. The United States, how ever, they could not guage. Roose- welt had just come out at Chicago with a speech advocating joint action against aggressor na- tions, and there was fear on the part of the dictators that the unpredictable MT. Roosevelt might mean business.
 Navy Demands Action :. Whatever it's background, the deliberate bombing of the Panay by Japanese army aviators, plus the subsequent machine-gunning by Japanese naval craft, did not find the U. s. Navy entirely un- prepared. For a week in advance, Admiral Leahy, chief of naval op- : erations, had worked feverishly night and day. So when the Panay incident occurred, the Navy was ready for action.
 When the news broke, Leahy's first move was to go to the State Department and report his pre- paredness to Cordell Hull. In Hull's office he found Assistant Secretary Hugh Wilson, now arl- bassador Hugh Wilson, now ann bassador to Germany, pacing the floor and urging that the United States tread softly.
 'In two years China will swaI- low up Japan," he said. We can't tack any risks, admiral" U. S.-British Blockade
 What Admiral Leahy had pre- pared was a plan for a joint blockade of Japan by American and British forces = the British also having been attacked on the Yangtze. The general strategy had been approved by Hull and Roosevelt earlier in the year, when they contemplated putting the peace machinery of the Nine Pow CT Pact into effect against Japan at the Brussels Conference.
 Nubbin of the plan was the placing the British ships at Singa- pore, plus U. s. ships at Panama, plus the cooperation of Russia at Vladivostok. By stationing ships at these three focal points it was possible to isolate Japan com pletely.
 Unlike Italy, which was able to beat the sanctions of the League of Nations, Japan is a series of islands isolated from the rest of the world by long distances. She must import her cotton, oil. cop- per, iron and other essential war materials. Furthermore, distances are so great in the Pacific that the Japanese fleet could not have steamed all the way to Hawaii to attack the U. s. fleet without be- ing annihilated, nor could 1t have steamed even to Singapore with out tremendous risk.
 "NO war game was ever sim pIer," Admiral Leahy reported to the President. We place our fleet at Panama and Hawaii. The British place 24 ships at
 Singapore. The Russians have 30 submarines at Vladivostok. They send them down to harass Japanese lines of communica-