The Press WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 1940. Far Eastern Tension

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23086, 31 July 1940, Page 8

The Press WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 1940. Far Eastern Tension

The hopes expressed by Mr Churchill and a section of the British press that the British Government’s agreement to close the Burma road to arms traffic -for a period of three months would ease the tension in the Far East have speedily been disappointed. No Power is less likely to respond favourably to a policy of appeasement than Japan, and the only lesuL of the Burma concession seems to have been to persuade the Japanese Government that the time is ripe for a further drive against the interests of the democracies in China. The land blockade of Hong Kong has been intensified; numbers of prominent British citizens in Japan have been arrested, allegedly as part of an antiespionage campaign; and the Japanese military authorities are increasing their efforts to obtain control of the International Settlement at Shanghai. One interesting feature of this latest attack on the interests of third Powers is that for the first time in many years there has been no discrimination in favour of the United States. This may be partly due to the fact that since the collapse of France the United States has not been able to act on the assumption that her whole naval force is available for use in the Pacific. To some extent also it may be due to the revelation, following the Burma road decision, that British and American policies weie out of step. Mr Cordell Hull’s comment on that decision came very close to being a protest against it; and a few days after Mr Hull had spoken there came the strange statement by the President’s secretary, Mr Stephen Early, which seemed to give American sanction to a Japanese Monroe Doctrine for East Asia. Though Mr Early’s statement was explained away, it left the unfortunate and possibly correct ■ impression that American Far Eastern policy was in a state of some confusion. The net result of the Burma road decision appears therefore to have been a further embitterment of Anglo-Japanese relations and a clear indication to Japan that the democracies are once again at cross purposes in the Far East. The one consoling feature in an ugly situation is that Japan is still playing her own hand and has not yet aligned herself with the axis Powers. Both Prince Konoye and his Foreign Minister, Mr Matsuoka, are committed to the policy of independent Japanese action in East Asia, and no change is likely while they remain in office. It will be recalled that in announcing the Burma road decision Mr Churchill expressed the hope that “ the time thus gained” would be used by the Japanese and Chungking Governments to seek an honourable peace. A few days later Prince Konoye made a statement which seemed to imply that the peace offer he made to Chungking in December, 1938, still held. It is now reported in a cable message from Hong Kong that the Japanese Government has made a peace offer based on the proposal that five important coastal provinces should be ceded to Japan and that in return Japan should recognise Chinese sovereignty over French Indo-China and Burma. There is no possibility of gauging the correctness of this report, though it may be significant that it has passed 'the British censorship in Hong Kong. But its importance lies in the fact that it points to the possibility of a peace settlement between Japan and China which would be disastrous for British interests and prestige in the Far East.