King Country Chronicle Wednesday, July 19, 1939. DEADLOCK IN CHINA?

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4812, 19 July 1939, Page 4

King Country Chronicle Wednesday, July 19, 1939. DEADLOCK IN CHINA?

Events have made it abundantly clear that the blockade of the British concession and occurrences at Swatow and elsewhere cannot be regarded as incidents such as might normally be expected through the presence of third Powers in the theatre of an undeclared war between Japan and China. Britain is in the Far East as a trading nation, with businesses established at the treaty ports of China for nearly a hundred years; Japan is in China as an invader determined to work her will upon that country, to the exclusion of the Western nations with their accumulated investments. For long have we heard from the Japanese the cry of “Asia for the Asiatics,” and at the present time it appears that the Japanese are endeavouring to put this policy into force. The British Ambassador at Tokio, Sir Robert Craigie, has been engaged in preliminary discussions with the Japanese Foreign Minister, Mr. Arita, on the Tientsin affair, but the strong antiBritish agitation and the Japanese determination to make the issue far broader than the pretexts for their actions at Tientsin have resulted in what Mr. Chamberlain in the House of Commons described as an adjournment to give time for further consideration to the matters involved. However, if the statements that have been made are an indication of the Japanese view, that view is likely to be found to be diametrically opposed to those of Britain. As late as July 6, the Premier of Japan, Baron Hiranuma, said that these talks had no meaning unless Britain clearly understood Japan’s aim in building a new order in the Far East, and should Britain refuse to recognise Japan’s main point and accept her claim, there would be no alternative but to break off the talks. What this new order would entail may best be described by repeating the statement of the Japanese Minister of War, General Itagaki. It was as follows:—“Should the. Chiang Kai-shek regime collapse to-morrow it would be necessary to crush the anti-Japanese policy of third Powers, which must be accomplished at any cost in order to free-China from her semi-colonial conditions.” Little wonder it is that The Times in its latest comment holds out little hope of any result of the Anglo-Japanese talks. Mr, Chamberlain has said that were the Tientsin issue confined to the original subject of dispute it ought to be possible to settle it by negotiation, but it looks as if these excuses have faded into the background in favour of the broader aspect of the place of the Western nations in the commerce of China. In this connection, though she is as yet the principal scapegoat, Britain is not the only nation involved.