“SHORT-SIGHTED POLICY."

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 81, 17 January 1936, Page 5

“SHORT-SIGHTED POLICY."

MISDIRECTION OF ENERGY.

ROME PRESS VIEW OF BRITAIN.

ROME, January 16.

The newspaper "La Stampa" .says: "The Empire of the Rising Sun has now. won all points in the game in the last few years. Its adversaries, Britain and America, have one weapon at their.disposal, now that the Washington system has ended, and that is the fortification of Hong-Kong and the Philippines. But will they resort to it?"

Other newspapers deplore Britain's short-sighted attitude of tying up the Home Fleet in the Mediterranean, and absorbing her energies miserably in the Abyssinian conflict, while Japan is building up an impregnable position in the Far East which menaces the future of the British Empire in the Pacific.

A Paris message says that the "Temps" asks if the conference can usefully carry on without Japan. The "Journal des Debats" says that the real cause of the rnpture is the dispute whether Japan shall be mistress in Asia.

THE EMPIRE'S ATTITUDE.

EXPRESSION BY BRITAIN

LONDON, January 15

A correspondent of the "Sun-Her-ald" Service says that the British statement, though not compiled in conjunction with the Dominions, expresses the Empire's attitude at the Naval Conference as it affected responsibilities to the Empire. Hitherto the British have not openly admitted that the Japanese sought a fleet equalling that of the Empire and the United States. They now point out that the Japanese demanded that all navies should be reduced to their level or slightly below.

THE DOMINATING INFLUENCE NARROW-MINDED ELEMENTS. LONDON, January 16. ( "The Times," commenting on Japan's withdrawal from the Naval Conference, ,«ays that her attitude is plainly unreasonable, and can be explained only by a dominating influence exercised in Tokio by elements which have neither the knowledge nor the wish to understand the world outside Japan. Ihe conference will go on, and when sufficient progress is made other naval Powers—for instance, Germany and Russia—will probably be invited to take part in working out a new treaty which will lie an effective contribution to the cause of peace and disarmament. The world will continue to desire Japan's co-operation, despite her withdrawal yesterday.