The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1911. JAPAN AND INDO-CHINA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 173, 24 July 1941, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1911. JAPAN AND INDO-CHINA

AMIDST many unconfirmed reports and plausible conjectures concerning a new move by Japan there seem to be two established facts: First, Japan has made fresh demands on the Government of French Indo-China; secondly, the Government at Vichy is willing to grant those demands. Although the demands have not been made public, the Vichy statement refers to the use of military bases in the south of the colony. Such "temporary" use the Vichy Government is prepared to concede, "provided there is no threat to the colony's integrity and to French sovereignty." This, of course, is mere verbiage. The degree of "integrity" which the colony wouid retain under Japanese occupation is the same as the Vichy Government has been able to maintain under Germany. In the present anarchic state of the world the Power that has the guns—and the bombers and the tanks—is the ruler, and contentions to the contrary are a pretence which deceives nobody. The fact that this Japanese expansionist move coincides with the German attack on Russia is of course not surprising, for it has always been recognised that Japan would grasp such opportunities to pursue her own interests. But it is difficult to resist the conclusion that the time and the direction of the move were not decided in Tokyo alone, but in Tokyo and Berlin. When the Vichy spokesman declared that Japan "merely wanted to protect Indo-China" he said exactly what the Germans would wish him to say, and probably what they told him to say. Nothing is more certain than that Britain has no thought of acting provocatively in South Asia. Britain has enough problems to solve elsewhere, without creating fresh ones. She sent troops into Syria to avert a German occupation of that country, an occupation which would have involved a deadly threat to Suez. Britain is at war with Germanv. She is not at war with Japan. There are strong British forces in Malaya, but they represent no threat to Japan, nor to Indo-China. But Japanese occupation and domination of Indo-China would involve a threat to the British position at Singapore, and to much else besides. Japan, of course, knows that, and if she has decided upon such an occupation she has counted the risk and resolved to take it. And the assent of the Vichy Government, which is not a free agent, makes no difference. What it is more important to note is that Japan is in alliance with the Axis.

But, though Japan has made the demands and Vichy is willing to grant them, the occupation of the military bases has, apparently, still to be accomplished, and the crucial question of the moment is whether it can or will be accomplished without hindrance, either by the French forces in Indo-China or by Britain and the United States." The record of the French administration in Indo-China since the Armistice does not inspire much hope that its leaders will go contrary to the decisions of Vichy. As to Britain and the United States, nothing can be said except that both are fully aware of the implications of the projected Japanese move, and there are encouraging reports of their agreement as to the action to be taken. The intention of the United States Government, according to the usually well informed correspondent in Washington of the "New York Times," is to impose "vigorous economic sanctions" against Japan. That would be the gravest step the Roosevelt Government has ever taken in relation to Japan. It would involve the risk of war in the Pacific, and might bring war very quickly.