POST WAR JAPAN

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 13772, 15 October 1942, Page 3

POST WAR JAPAN

MUST BE STRIPPED OF PRIVILEGES Asia’s Awakening Millions China Seen as Possible Leader Washington, Sept. 4. Japan must he completely stripped of all special privileges in Asia but must be permitted to develop industrially and to share in economic benefits open to other nations, is the opinion of the official American adviser to Generalissimo Chiang KaiShek.

Declaring that the Western World must radically revise its attitude toward the East, Owen Lattimore foresees the possibility that China, not Japan, will be the leader of Asia’s awakening millions. In his discussion of “Asia in a new world order” written for the Foreign Policy Association, Mr Lattimore, who will be in a strong position to influence America’s post-war decisions toward the East, warns that “the China of the future will he responsive to co-operation, but independent of control.

“If foreign capital wishes to participate in the development of China on Chinese terms, it can do so with great profit; but neither foreign capital nor the economic organs of foreign governments, will be able to dictate the areas, the scale or the rate of China’s development,” Mr Lattimore writes.

Must Revise Views on Japan

Forecasting what many persons believe will be America’s policy toward a defeated Japan, the adviser to the Chinese Government stated that: “A cardinal change in our way of thinking about Japan is also required. It has always been one of our assumptions that Japan should play a major part in determining the balance between China and Russia. Since this was possible only if Japan were allowed a privileged position on the Asiatic mainland at the expense of China, we have always winked at Japan’s ‘special position’ in China’s north-eastern provinces of Manchuria.

“Japan’s position must he determined by these major considerations on the one hand, and on the other hand, by the consideration that in an Asia which as a whole is primarily concerned with emancipation, Japan cannot be reduced to a quasi-colony or protectorate. Though deprived of any exclusive rights or privileges in China, Japan must be ‘de-industrial-ised,’ or deprived of any economic opportunities that are open to any other country. For the sake of economic progress throughout Asia, and the sake of future democratic evolution in Japan, all Asiatic countries must have the benefit of Japan’s competitive industrial efficiency; but they must be able to deal with Japanese businessmen who do not carry bayonets.” U.S. Concern Over India

In regard to India, Mr Lattimore said that, “we do not yet realise, but we shall, that for America to approve or disapprove of freedom for India is not an academic question whether we ‘believe in’ democracy, but a practical question which determines the centre of gravity, the balance or unbalance, of the whole society of Great Britain, and therefore has an influence in America on such things as intimate concern to us as rights of property, security of investment, rates of interest, volume of production, and degree of employment.

“Whether that influence will be unsettling or stabilising as far as our own affairs are concerned does not depend on Britain alone. It also depends on our own relations both to Britain and to India; And if we are concerned with India, then we are concerned with the colonial system as a whole. If we are concerned with the degree to which the colonial system overlaps into China, and the degree to which China emancipates itself from the last traces of western control. China leads us on to Russia, because each of them is anti-impei'ialist and anti-colonial, both of them are on *our side in the war, and both of them will be more important after the war than they were before.” Understands the Chinese It is apparent that Mr Lattimore. who has shown a deep affection for and understanding of. the Chinese people, is convinced that China is destined to move ahead rapidly in the comity of nations. He believes that the urge toward nationalistic democracy is very strong in China to-day and that the Western World must permit China to evolve as its traditions .and desires dictate. “China, as a country aspiring to a democracy of a modern type, is young and immature. We have a

dangerously patronising attitude toward China, which in our own interest we should learn to curb. A young democracy is bound to make mistakes. If, however, there is such a thing as a right to democracy at all, it includes the right of beginning as an imperfect democracy and learning by one’s own mistakes and successes. “Co-operate with China we must; otherwise it will be impossible to establish peace in East Asia. Intervene in China we must not; other wise we shall destroy peace in the Far East. The most dangerous notion that Americans could entertain is that America, or any other country, has the right or the duty either to coerce the Chinese Government into fighting a civil war against the Communists, or to dictate the terms of settlement between the Government and the Communists.”