“JAPAN ON WARPATH.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 192, 15 July 1939, Page 15

“JAPAN ON WARPATH.”

. NEAYSI’APER VIEW. LONDON, June 23. In perhaps the most outspoken assessment of the Far Eastern situation yet published in London, the Economist states: "The purpose of the Tientsin blockade is to inflict a ror soiiiiding public humiliation on Britain. 1 "The calculation is, presumably, that, if, at one point in her Empire, Britain can he forced to submit to indignity, the vast edifice of British rights and interests in flic Far East, and perhaps nearer home, may bo shaken down. “There is no doubt that the Japanese Army is on the warpath. The only ■question is whether the army has succeeded in .implicating the Government at Tokio in this policy, but once the Japanese Army "has succeeded in enhancing Japanese prestige, the Government is apt to fall .into line. “Thus we are faced with the likelihood that the Japanese Army will succeed in its aim of bringing the crisis to a head on the major issue of Britain’s status as a great- Power. AVo may he faced at any time with the choice- between capitulation and retaliation. and at the precise moment when British diplomacy is suffering unparalleled setbacks. The consequences of further capitulations will he incalculably grave. “A factor that must he giving tho Jana nose Army confidence is the knowledge that a trade embargo, even in the unlikely event of the United States co-operating, would take time to bring Japan to her knees, whereas, in the. event of a physical struggle, Janan could seize nearly all the British and French possessions between Singapore and Hawaii. “Blindness in high places is costing tho nation most heavily in treasure already, and it may yet cost it more dearly in blood.”