Evening Post FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1940. REACTIONS IN FOUR CITIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 113, 8 November 1940, Page 6

Evening Post FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1940. REACTIONS IN FOUR CITIES

The three Great Powers that arej not engaged in the present great war —Russia, Japan, and the United States—can now take their bearings afresh in the certain knowledge thatj Mr. Roosevelt will be President of the United States for four years. There is, of course, no absolute certainty in human affairs; but, as the war is already more than a year old, Mr. Roosevelt's Presidency is likely to outlast the war and to cover the peace arrangements, unless hostilities extend over a far longer period than in 1914-18. And this fact carries great implications for Japan and Russia as well as for the Axis Powers themselves. Russia, whose whole pose, has been that of a, Great Power who waits its time, publishes Mr. Roosevelt's re-election in Moscow without comment; but there is indirect comment in the statement by M. Kalinin (whose voice is one of the few old voices still permitted to be heard in Russia) that Russia will ] continue to pursue —and to pursue with apparent satisfaction—strict neutrality. But the pose of Japan is not that of a Great Power which bides its time. Japan, on the contrary, wants to get something done, and quickly, both in French and in Dutch Oriental territory, having sent a mission to the latter and soldiers to the former. And comment is as free in Tokio as it is restricted in Moscow. Candidly, Japanese commentators are disappointed at Mr. Roosevelt's reelection. Japanese disappointment, it is cabled, is due to a belief that a change of Presidents in the United States would have meant "a reorientation of American policy towards Japan." We do not know that Mr. Willkie ever said anything to warrant a Japanese preference for him; but perhaps the Western proverb— "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know"—operates in Tokio in reverse. The Japanese Foreign Office spokesman states that, no matter who is President, United States policy in the Far East is "not feasible." Tokio, in fact, is just as1 vocal as Moscow is silent. The more Japan is obsessed by the idea that the United States is pursuing her with "continuously challenging measures" ("Kokumin Shimbun's" phrase) the more Japan will feel inclined to bid for Russian support; so the silence of Moscow, if not the clamour of Tokio, seems to be inspired by diplomatic acuteness. The Axis belligerents also seem to differ in their reactions to Mr. Roosevelt's re-elec-tion. It is cabled that the Italians are "most pessimistic," but Berlin says that Mr. Roosevelt's return is "an American domestic matter not playing any role in determining the political attitude "of the Reich." But is this a case of political sour grapes? If Mr. Roosevelt had fallen, would not Berlin have been overjoyed concerning "this great international portent"?