Nelson Evening Mail MONDAY, APRIL 23, 1934 JAPAN’S MISTAKE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 23 April 1934, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail MONDAY, APRIL 23, 1934 JAPAN’S MISTAKE

AS was anticipated, the peremptory, almost dictatorial pronouncement, made by the Japanese Government through its official spokesman, in relations to Japan’s pretensions in China, has been greatly modified in a second pronouncement, which is comparatively mild and innocuous. It contained the following passages:— Japan bears the entire burden of responsibilities for peace in the East. .... We are not spreading propaganda. . . . Wo desire China s unification and prosperity, from which, from our geographical position, we would share in the trade-profits. . . .

We have no intention to deviate from the open door. Wo welcome others trading with China, when it benefits the Chinese., . . . We have no territorial ambitions in China and Manchukuo

That of course is very different from the first statement, which was described at l’ekin as the “Hands off China ’ pronouncement, and naturally it will be asked why the Japanese Government did not say exactly what it meant at first, instead of subsequently qualifying what it had said, and so giving the impression of confusion, if not weakness. The official spokesman explained that the pronouncement which lie had delivered was “the elucidation of a speech in the Diet on the 23rd January” by Mr Hirota, one of the members of the Japanese Cabinet. That being so, why did the official spokesman wait nearly three months before bo published his highly-coloured version of the speech;? The answer seems to ho that when Recently tlie American Government, through the Foreign Policy Association of the United States, made a somewhat weak statement as to the policy m lelation to Manchuria and the Western Pacific, the official spokesman of the Japanese Government, acting under its instructions, made the statement which elicited such disturbing comments m North America and Europe; and it is to he noted that in the United States there was expressed a distinct hope, that Britain would support America “should any ‘showdown’ result from the firmer Japanese policy regarding China.” 01 course the two countries are interested in maintaining the open door in China so far as international trade is concerned, hut it is difficult, to picture tlie British Government, as at present constituted, taking any very definite stand in relation to any problem which possibly might involve the employment ot for-e. It is difficult to imagine Mi' MacDonald and Mr Baldwin pulling America’s chestnuts out of the fire, in any circumstances whatever. What, then, is the real situation as to the stability of trade with China? What guarantee is there that the Japanese Government will not at some future date, resume its peremptory and dictatorial tone in reference to China, Manchuria, and the Western Pacific? It is difficult to answer such questions without knowing what motives there were behind the first announcement made by the. Japanese Government's official suokesmaii. Was it that that official was merely clumsy iv making liis statement Was it Hint, ir a moment of elation at the apparent weakness in the policy of the United S'.-tcs, he “coloured” his statement with a view to impressing the world in general and the people .of the United States in particular? No doubt answers to these questions will he forthcoming, when the foreign correspondents at Tokio submit

their accounts of the incident to their journals. In the meanwhile, doubtless, the Governments of the ten or dozen nations which have guaranteed I lie integrity of China's territory and Manchuria in particular, will confer through the agency of their ambassadors, and, without coming to a formal decision, will arrive at a general understanding as to what should be done if any serious attempt were made to interfere with China’s right to trade freely with foreign nations, or to work out her own political salvation as best she can. The extraordinary indiscretion of the Japanese. Government in making, through its official spokesman, a statement which subsequently it was obliged to modify materially, will not increase its prestige abroad, and the incident will probably stiffen the attitude of the Chitted States towards the preservation of China s territorial rights. Washington at any rate has had a hint of what Japan would like to do in China and the Far East, if there were no impediments, and the Americans may bo expected to re-act by formulating a naval policy which will give them immense strength in the Pacific.