The Press MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1941. Mr Kurusu’s Mission

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23482, 10 November 1941, Page 4

The Press MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1941. Mr Kurusu’s Mission

Last week the tortuous diplomatic game which the United States and Japan have been playing since the outbreak of the war in Europe entered a new phase. The Tojo Government, having brought the countries of the Pacific closer to v/ar than they have been since 1918, suddenly moved to ease the tension. Mr Saburo Kurusu, who has an American wife and is reputed to regard Japan’s connexions with the Axis as disastrous, was sent to assist Admiral Nomura in the Washington discussions, which since the change of government in Japan have relapsed into futility. This demarche was accompanied by an unusually elaborate press campaign. The “Japan Times and Advertiser,” which is close to the Japanese Foreign Office, proclaimed that the United States was being given “a last “chance to make amends for aggression” and indicated that Japan’s minimum demands would include cessation of American aid to China, the use of American influence to persuade Chungking to make peace, relaxation of the economic embargo, and acceptance by America of the “ new order in East Asia.” At the same time the press generally began an elaborately artless discussion of possible military moves against China, the general opinion being that a grand offensive against the Burma Road from nerth Indo-China offered the best prospect of success. The motive behind this last suggestion was fairly obvious. Of all the military moves open to Japan, short of an attack on British, American, or Netherlands possessions in the Far East, an offensive against the Burma Road would cause most concern to the democracies because it would bring war to the borders of Thailand and Burma and would make necessary a strengthening of British defences throughout south-eastern Asia. However, Mr Roosevelt and the State Department are by now thoroughly conversant with the technique of Far Eastern diplomacy; and at the week-end the Administration obliquely but effectively answered Japanese threats. Mr Roosevelt told his press conference that the withdrawal of United States marines from Japanese-occupied China was under consideration; and a later statement by the State Department seems to mean that withdrawal has actually been decided upon. “ Watch the “ marines ” has been a by-word among American newspaper correspondents in the Far East for some years, the assumption being that as long as the marines are in occupied China the United States Government will not move to a final settling of accounts with Japan. Also during the week-end the United States military mission to China made an air inspection of the defences of the Burma Road and w r as appropriately impressed; while in Chungking Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek told a speciallysummoned gathering of foreign correspondents that there were “ increasing signs of co-ordina-tion and unity” among the countries interested in resisting Japanese aggression. He went on to hint that China’s armies, strengthened by supplies from abroad, would shortly be taking the offensive. It would seem that in this atmosphere of threats and counter-threats the possibility of Mr Kurusu’s mission having any sort of success is remote. Yet although the gulf between the American and Japanese points of view is so wide that any comprehensive Far Eastern settlement is out of the question, there is perhaps some chance of an accommodation which will, for a few months, and provided Russia does not in the meantime suffer a military collapse, keep the peace in the Pacific. That Mr Kurusu seeks any comprehensive settlement is not likely; the probable purpose of . his mission is to secure some relaxation of trade embargoes which are gradually sapping Japan’s economic and military strength. At first sight, his bargaining position is hopelessly weak. The “Japan Times and Advertiser” has emphasised “the strength of Japan’s central “position and her ability to move in a num“ber of different directions, requiring her “potential enemies to distribute and diffuse “ their defensive strength.” But by compelling the democracies to strengthen their Far Eastern defences Japan is helping Germany at her own expense. She has drawn round herself a military and .economic cordon which is growing stronger while she grows weaker. There is only this in Mr Kurusu’s favour. By completely severing trade relations with Japan, the United States Government has played all the cards it holds, so that if Japan commits another act of aggression it will have a choice between doing nothing and going to war. Though a section of American naval opinion holds that war with Japan is inevitable, and that war this year would be preferable to war next year, when the Japanese navy vill be strengthened by the commissioning of two new battleships and several cruisers, it may be doubted whether the United States public is ready for war. That being so, the Administration may find it expedient to 1 concede just enough to save the face of the Tojo Government and avert a final break in the Washington discussions.