Word: feeler
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World War II's biggest front, its oldest battle, its hugest protagonist are unknowns. Since May 8 the Japanese have been pushing against the Northern China Front, in an important feeler operation involving about six Japanese divisions. To an unknowing world it is a vast battle in the dark and yet few zones of operation are more important to the London-Washington Axis...
Together with Germany's published propaganda dividing the world into four economic areas (see map), the "abstract" made one thing clear: Germany and Japan do their diplomatic thinking along deadly parallels. But whereas Germany's appeasement feeler was designed to convince unanalytical U.S. citizens of its reasonableness, no matter what its intent, Japan's was a blunt invitation to the U.S. to abdicate as a great power. The plan...
This appeasement feeler got a prompt negative response from both Britain and the U.S. In Washington Secretary of State Cordell Hull said plainly that U.S.-Japanese relations would get no better so long as Japan pursued her present foreign policy. From Singapore, U.S.-made, Australian-manned bombing planes roared 100 miles to sea to meet a second batch of men and machines to reinforce that vital British fortress. Said Major General Lionel Vivian Bond, Commander of the British land forces in Malaya: "The United States Fleet is the most powerful factor deterring the activity of an enemy of Britain...
...views on the need of expansion were getting so poor a hearing at the White House that he went off on a long vacation to the Virgin Islands. About that time rumors spread that he was through with Washington, and he began getting offers of private jobs (including a feeler asking if he would like the $48,000-a-year post William McChesney Martin was vacating as head of the Stock Exchange). Since then four things have happened to change this picture...
Though inconclusive, the attack on the Dodecanese was an important feeler against Italy's main base in the eastern Mediterranean. The U.S. destroyer deal had opened the way for a new and bolder British strategy in the Mediterranean: to harass, with the help of reinforcements, Italian bases and communications to such an extent that Mussolini would be forced to bring his main fleet into play to protect the vital line to Libya. Then, at last, His Majesty's Navy might be able to work up something more exciting than a game of drop the handkerchief...