THE NATIONS OF THE PACIFIC

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 6 October 1936, Page 4

THE NATIONS OF THE PACIFIC

YESTERDAY we printed an interesting letter, written by a German citizen to a friend in Auckland, in which occurred the following passage, “Nobody (in Germany) thinks of entering again the Pacific area, because everyone fears the coming fight between the white race and Japan.” What does the writer of that sentence know of the situation in the Pacific, and how can he be certain that Japan will, of her own initiative, provoke a warlike contest with the white nations of the Pacific? At the present time Japan is fully engaged in China. Is she likely to jeopardise her policy of expansion there by picking a quarrel with Britain and the United States in the Pacific? For it cannot be too strongly stated that the interests of the Eng-lish-speaking nations in that expansive ocean will stand or fall together. The United States’ interests in the Hawaiian Islands and Britain’s interests in Singapore and Australia and New Zealand would unite them if any attempt were made by a third Power to dominate the Pacific. The Japanese Government knows that full well, and in the Land of the Rising Sun it is with the Mikado that direction of the national policy rests. Indeed, the Government of that country cannot implement any important policy without the approval of the Mikado, whose word is law. He certainly has approved of the invasion and annexation of Chinese territory by Japanese armies, but there is nothing to show that simultaneously he contemplates aggression in the Pacific. What will happen when he has carried through his policy on the mainland of Asia, who can say? But it is evidently in the interests of the white races of the Pacific that their Governments should act together for the maintenance ol their interests in that ocean.