PEACE PROBLEMS

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 113, 9 November 1921, Page 6

PEACE PROBLEMS

RIDDLE OF THE FAR EAST

JAPAN AND CHINA AT WASHINGTON

SERIOUS DIFFICULTIES ENVISAGED.

(CNIIBB PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPIIIIOIT.) (AUSTRALIAN - NBW ZEALAND1 CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received November 9, 1 p.m.) LONDON, 7th November. A special correspondent to the Washington Conference, referring to the greatness and complexity of the difficulties confronting the Conference, says the /chief ol them are not the Pacific problems, but the whole riddle of the. Far East. Japan enters the Conference fully convinced of the justice of her Far East claims. It is that very, conviction which may prove a stumbling-block, because the Chinese and Japanese ideas of a just settlement differ most widely. If Japan succeeds in pressing her views to the point of recognition, the Chinese may withdraw; but this is anticipating a crisis which is not yet sighted. The late',Mr. Hara was regarded in America. as a brake on the' Japanese Military Party. It is doubted whether another moderate, equally able and forceful, can be found to replace him, and it is feared that his disappearance imay profoundly modify the policy of the delegates in, essence, though not in profession. The whole atmosphere of the coming Conference is one of serious realisation of the obstacles ahead, commingled with an earnest and by no means forlorn hope of ultimate success. A vigorous campaign is proceeding for open discussions. Rumours from New York indicate the likelihood that^ Sinn Fein sympathisers are coming to Washington to carry on propaganda designed to create complications.' ''