THE H.B. TRIBUNE. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15th, 1921. LORD NORTHCLIFFE AND JAPAN.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XI, Issue 241, 15 October 1921, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15th, 1921. LORD NORTHCLIFFE AND JAPAN.

Lord Northcliffe is, by this time, no doubt beginning to realise what it is to come out into the public gaze, to be his own mouthpiece,, and to lay himself open to personal criticism. During the few short months of his world tour he has made, or had attributed to him by his own press, more than one rhetorical “faux pas” for which he has found it necessary to make something in the way of an apologia. It is good for a man in his position to find himself, even with regard to what he says, let alone what he does, in an entirely novel position in which he can he individually criticised. This reference to him is, of course, prompted by the cable message, published in our columns yesterday, which indicated that the Japanese Foreign Office had taken deep umbrage at a scarcely veiled imputation of territorial designs on Australia. The statesman who spoke for Japan was very careful to safeguard himself by saying that it was perhaps a little premature to express an opinion on Lord North'cliffe’s infererftial suggestion of possible Japanese aggression without having the full text and context on which to go. But we may be pretty sure that the Japanese Foreign Office had been kept very amply advised as to all that the big newspaper owner had to say that could be in any way interpreted as having regard to the relations of the Empire and Japan. As a matter of fact, the full reports of Lord Northcliffe’s farewell interview which appear in the Australian press fully justify the conclusion drawn in Japan. After emphasizing the attractions which Australia offered and the defenceless position in which the immense unpeopled areas of her isolated continent stood, he said

“We live in an age which, compared with other ages, is educated and informed. Australia’s magnitude and riches and the weakness of its garrison, are known to al] the overcrowded, ambitious nations in the near North. Probably Governments which circumstances may one day make hostile to tho Commonwealth know more about the possibilities of this coiintry as a home for scores of millions of people than is known by most Australians. Australians do not seem properly awake to the fact that they live in an age which has lately proved itself to be not distinguished by respect for international rights. To-day moral right to territory is in itself no right at all. Moral right must be based on capacity in arms. Among peoples of relatively equal individual fighting strength capacity in arms is measured by numbers, and by this standard Australia’s present position and immediate future are precarious.” Although Lord Northcliffe made his first allusion in the plural to the “nations” in the near North, what follows could aptly apply to only the one nation, so that Japan took but little chance of making a mistake in fitting the cap to her own head. If

indeed, anything in the shape of evidence were -wanted to render identification of the people at whom these remarks were aimed, it is provided by Lord Northeliffe’s own press organs. "Australian exchanges t'o hand contain lengthy extracts from the comment made by both the “Times” and the “Daily Mail” on the solemnity of his “warning, and, like himself, they speak of the danger as being something that is not lry any means remote in the way of time. There is only the one nation that can possibly constitute any such early menace. Considering the delicacy of the present international situation in regard to relations in the Far East and in the Pacific, Lord Northeliffe’s utterance seems singularly ill-timed. This is only emphasized by the fact that ere long he will be a guest in the country which has, from whatever motive, for nearly twenty years been, at the very least, a reliable ally, and to which he now points as a potential enemy in the not distant future. It will be of very distinct interest to note the character of the reception with which he will meet, and what he will have to say in the way of explanation.