Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1939 BRITAIN'S NOTE TO JAPAN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 17 January 1939, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1939 BRITAIN'S NOTE TO JAPAN

IT would be difficult to find in the history of modern diplomacy a more scathing indictment than the Note recently despatched by the British Government to Japan, the subject of which is the latter’s invasion of China. There is no ambiguity in the British Government’s method of expression. It infers that “Japan’s intentions are to establish a tripartite combination, or a bloc, composed of Japan, China, and Manchuria, in which supreme authority will be vested in Japan, and subordinate roles will be allotted to China and Manchuria. . . . According to Prince Konoye hostilities in China are to continue until the present Chinese Government has been crushed or will consent to enter the proposed combination on Japanese terms. The Note makes no threat, but it sets out in the plainest terms the British Government’s views of Japan’s unwarrantable invasion of China. It makes clear that Britain is not prepared to accept or recognise changes in the political, economic and cultural life of China, the maintenance in China of large ! Japanese garrisons “and a virtual detachment from China of the ; territory of inner Mongolia.” The ! United States Government has al--1 ready despatched to Japan a Note I couched in terms similar to those ; used by Great Britain, so that it is evident that the Governments of ' h- two great English-speaking * nations are in accord as regards ; methods of approaching the Japanese Government in reference to its predatory policy in China, and it is to be expected that they will act in unison in relation to the policy to be pursued towards Japan with a view to relieving China from her present state of oppression. It is clear from the terms of their expostulations that the British and American Governments do not propose to use force to persuade Japan to abandon her plan of conquest, hut it is evident that they hold in reserve the power of instituting against Japan an economic boycott which would detrimentally affect Japan commercially. It cannot be said that the two Governments have been precipitate in expressing their expostulations to Japan, whose response will be awaited with no small decree of interest, on both sides of the Atlantic. It is to be hoped that lapan’s reaction will be favourable. If in conformity with Prince Konoye’s statement Japan persists

in her anti-Chinese policy, it is I likely that a serious situation may arise, for the issue at stake is the civilised nations right to trade with China; and neither Britain nor America would be willing to , abandon that right at the dicta- J tion of Japan.