Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, MAY 4, 1925. THE MENACE OF ASIA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 128, 4 May 1925, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, MAY 4, 1925. THE MENACE OF ASIA.

Navau And military authorities aj-e alike agreed when, as appears almost inevitable, another great world struggle eventuates, the Pacific is almost certain to be its centre, and upon its waters and in the countries whose shores jt washes and encircles, the struggle for supremacy must take place. Japan’s rise to a place among the chief nations of the world has been meteoric and, like great nations, she is beset with troubles. The chief of these appears to be that of her evergrowing population, for which she is seeking an outlet. She has come to some sort of understanding with the Russian Soviet Government, the full significance of which Sir Herbert Russell, the well-known journalist and war correspondent, says, is not understood in Britain, but it would seem that she has withdrawn her troops and her people from Siberian territory, and, whatever her intentions may be in China, she js saying very little, but her inclinations aro to look southward. The Japanese, prior to the tightening up of the American immigration laws and the passing by the Californian Legislature of its exclusion laws so far as they were concerned, were pouring into California, and there are goods grounds f&r believing that they Iprve been casting longing eyes upon the w; ste spaces of Australia, which carry little or no population. There is, therefore, need i—and urgent need—that British defences in the Pacific should be strengthened—not as an act of aggression, out to guard against aggression—for the day will surely come when, if she is unable to achieve her purpose peacefully, Japan will found her colonies by force, possibly in association with the Mongol and Chftiese races, acting with the co-operation of the Russian Soviet Republic, The real danger lies in the union of' theso three peoples, acting and moving under Soviet influenoe, and, while at present it may seem a far-fetched idea to supposo that such a union is likely to be effected, stranger things have happened during the last, seven years. A Sydnpy contemporary points out that “the crusading spirit” of the Communists who control Russia to-day has led to sinister movements in Asia which threaten all the European nations having settlements in, or controlling Asiatic peoples. Under the Czar, Russian influence in Asiatic countries was becoming negligible, but “the territory now controlled from Moscow extends further than it, ever did under the Czar, and comes up against the boundaries of Persia, India, China, and Japan. . . The Soviet has in two years comploted a series of annexations and re-annexations, unparalleled in the history of imperialism since Alexander made his famous quick trip to India. . . The centre of the new imperialism is bound to its extremities by a continuous system of great railways that no foreign invader is ever likely to cut: and along these railways travel the emissaries of the new religion, and delegates from all the races under European rule to the pan-Asiatic conferences that are constantly being fostered by the Soviet in Mosoow, Kiev or Astrakhan. The other day an aero plane crashed in Siberia, and the cables reported that in it perished Soviet officials and delegate* proceeding to such a conference. A Canadian Minister went to the United States the other day in quest of aeroplanes and found that the Soviet has pre-empted all the available supply. The Interna tjoaole was recently sung in Java—as-

tounding fact! The native police drew their swords and charged the crowd from which came the blasphemous melody, and 15 were seriously wounded and 50 slightly wounded: and the Dutch Government admits, in puzzled wonderment, that its once docile subjects are honeycomlied with Communistic doctrine. All these incidents,” our contemporary adds, “are only the visible signs of the deep convulsion that is turning Asia over, and 1 it is the Russian Government that holds the power to accelerate or retard the cataclysm. Russia in short can threaten Europe with the loss of most of its colonial estate, on which much of its prosperity and wealth depends: and it can do so almost with impunity.” The picture may seem overdrawn, but it is none the less true.