A WAR ANNIVERSARY

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 241, 8 July 1938, Page 10

A WAR ANNIVERSARY

Yesterday was the first anniversary of the outbreak of hostilities on a major scale between Japan and China. Actually a war situation has existed for a much longer period. The present operations are simply the culmination of a series of crises, each of which was marked by Japanese military measures resulting either in the loss of Chinese territory o.r in the restriction of China’s sovereign rights. The main contributory factors were the weakness shown by the Chinese Central Government in maintaining order over the vast area under its control and the consequent menace to the lives and property of foreigners; and the pressure of the constantly increasing population in overcrowded Japan, and the demand by the Japanese for outlets particularly in China, for their manufactured products. ( For many years past Japan’s policy has been largely concentrated on the assertion of her claims in the Far East. Little by little she has been clearing the ground for enforcing recognition of these. Ihe Washington Nine-Power Treaty, an attempt by the United States and the European Powers to regulate the situation, committed the signatory Powers to the preservation of China’s territorial and political integrity, and to assistance to her Government in the reorganisation of her internal economy and the restoration of law and order. Owing to the uncertainty in Europe during the last decade, and the pre-occupation of the Western Powers in their own economic troubles during the World Depression, close contact with the Far East was lost, and conditions of anarchy began to develop in China. Japan was thus enabled by acts of intervention to take advantage of a situation favourable to the advancement of her claims and the development of her expansionist policy. Japan’s next step was the enunciation of a “Monroe Doctrine” in the Far East. Then came the separation of Manchuria from China and the creation of a puppet State under her tutelage. She resigned from the League and became associated with the Berlin-Rome “axis,” ostensibly an alliance against the encroachments of Communism, to which she is strongly opposed, and which was one of the yeasons given for . her intervention in China. These are the main elements in a situation which in July last precipitated the carnage and cruelties that have since horrified civilisation. Looking back it may be wondered whether diplomacy and common sense could not at one time or another have averted all this. A League of Nations not only strong and united, but determined at all costs to uphold the rule of law, might have been able to control the situation. The other Powers signatory to the Washington Treaty could have done it. But for the present international law has gone by default, and the rule of force dominates the scene.