World: Spirit in the Islands

The Japanese were as mad as little boys who had been denied sticks of bubble gum. They had hoped to get the strategic French islands of the Pacific—especially New Caledonia, which might soon prove to be a vital base in the flanking of Australia—as easily as they had got Vichyated French Indo-China. But Free France, in the person of an admiral who is also a friar, denied them that pleasure last week.

Determined to have their gum and bubble it too, the Japanese warned the Admiral to look for trouble. Warned Tokyo's Japan Times and Advertiser: "Japan will not hesitate for a...

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