NEXT WORLD WAR TO BE STAGED IN PACIFIC.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 20 September 1928, Page 5

NEXT WORLD WAR TO BE STAGED IN PACIFIC.

AND At NO DISTANT DATE. WITH CHINA THE PRIZE. WORLD POLITICS THROUGH ‘ FRENCH SPECTACLES. Probably -with the view of justifying the Anglo-French naval agreement (now dropped in deference to tie disarmament pact) a French Minister envisages a world conflict ‘ beside which the Great War will be a mere skirmish. He bbldly groups the Eastern and Western worlds In opposing camps and declares that China is the prize ■. for -which £h© Powers will contend., /By Telegraph-Press Assn.-Copyright.) . (Received This Day, 9.10 a.m.) , PARIS, Sept. 191 M. Sarraut, Minister for the Interior, foreshadows Xfuture war in the Pacific unless thereNs a reconciliation between the antagonistic interests affected. In an interview he stated the Paci■fie had become-a world problem* the solution of which involved even the future of civilisation. ‘ ‘ Let there be no mistake,V 7 he said. i ‘The Pacific is the theatre where there will be staged *tt no distant period the most formidable conflict civilisation has ever known, and beside which the late war •will appear a mere skirmish. For years the rivalry in the East was Anglo-Rus-sian with Spain holding a few straggling cdlonies. Russia dreamed of seizing Asia and looked with envy upon India, which is still the central pillar on which the fraternity of states of the British Commonwealth is erected. To maintain the mastery Britain must absorb and penetrate the neighbouring states necessary for the protection of India. , . ■*» While Britain holds the masses ot population in Asia under her control, with Australia, New Zealand and Singapore as bases, Russia has a trump oard in the Trans-Siberian railway, and the United States a most valuable base in the Philippines, while France possesses a balcony overlooking the Pacific. Thus the powers are concen■trating on the Pacific from every side with eyes on China, its vast markets, inexhaustible mineral deposits, hun--dreds of thousands of acres of oil lakes, and endless supply of , labour. Among the rivals of the Western World it is a case of ‘First cg,me, first served, ’ with the solitary exception of the United States, which 'pnly asks for the opei^.door. ... - 1 'Relations:between Russia and Jap;au have changed since 1904. Both believe the United States regards them with animosity. Is it forbidden, therefore, to imagine Russia and China assuring Japan of a continental outlet for her population and thus allowing three to look less timidly at a possible European conflict? • Cannot we consider the hypothesis of Russia and japan solid in their resistance to the United States, fearing an Anglo-Amer-ican-French Coalition in the Pacific, dreaming of a fraternity of arms against the white races. 1 ‘Russia may. then attack Gcnnany and Poland in order to provide the necessary European incident capable of retaining the French and British fleets in Europe and thus preventing the Francq-British fleets joining the American navy in a Pacific Wai or defending her own possessions in Lie Pacific. 7 7