United States’ “Shot Across Japan’s Bows” Was Premeditated

Northern Advocate, 29 July 1939, Page 7

United States’ “Shot Across Japan’s Bows” Was Premeditated

(Received 11.0 a.m.) NEW YORK, July 28. rpHE DECISION OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT TO ABROGATE THE COMMERCIAL TREATY WITH JAPAN WAS NOT SUDDEN, BUT HAD BEEN STUDIED FOR A CONSIDERABLE TIME. SAYS THE WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. Officials had been carefully checking American sentiment regarding Japan for several months, and they came to the conclusion that Japan’s actions, one by one, had been adding a few blocks to American opinion against her. They believe Japan by now has affronted, injured or damaged missionaries or missions of practically every American religious group represented in China, and has lost the sympathies of them. They think that by now Japan has damaged all American companies having branches or.interests in China and has aroused their resentment. Repeated protests by the American' Chambers of Commerce in China attest this viewpoint.

Of Capital Importance,

The “New York Times” says, in a

leader: “To each of the three protagonists in the great drama now being played in Asia, the abrogation of the treaty carried a message of capital importance. “To China it cannot fail to bring encouragement in a dark hour. “For the British Government, the action has a message of no less significance than to the Government of China. It notifies Britain that if she adopts a stronger policy in the face of Japanese pressure she will not stand alone. For the British are not unaware that the first line of defence of their own Imperial interests in Asia lies in China. Nine-Power Pact Survives.

“Finally to the Government of Japan the action says that we still take our promises seriously, that we still regard ourselves, and Japan, too, as bound by the terms of the Nine-Power Treaty, which pledges mutual recognition of the independence and territorial and administrative integrity of China, and that we still intend to use what influence we can, by means which are short of war, to make certain that this independence and integrity are respected.” Correct Thing To Do.

The New York “Herald-Tribune,” in a leader, says: “Short of an ultimatum to Japan severing diplomatic relations unless she gave prompt evidence of respect for the treaties she signed, it was the only correct thing to do. “The very resentful official reaction in Tokio to Mr Cordell Hull's notification is extremely interesting as a confession that Japan intends to deserve, six months’ hence, all the punitive restrictions on her trade with the United States which the expiration of the treaty will make possible. The Testing Time.

“It does not seem likely that the Japanese army will wait six months to experiment \<dth some of the reprisal measures which Tokio is in such haste to think up, and, once they start, as their tactics against the British give us good reason to know, no one in the State Department will have time to waste on redrafting the commercial treaty with Japan.” The Washington correspondent of the London “Daily Telegraph” says that, in spite of Mr Hull’s phrasing of his explanation of the abrogation, the purpose of the denunciation ’ of the treaty is plain—it is a “shot across the bows” for Japan.