Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 1939 PEACE OR WAR?

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 18 April 1939, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 1939 PEACE OR WAR?

| I O-DAV it is reported that H err I Uhler s reply to President Roosevelt s personal appeal to the Dictators may not be dispatched until after the Fuhrer’s birthday on 20th April. A straightforward answer is difficult only to those harbouring ulterior aims. From Italy comes the news that Signor Mussolini s ' own newspaper violently condemns the President’s message, calls on all Italians to reject it and declares that “it does not clarify the industrial situation. Tokio newspapers 1 consider that President Roosevelt j is merely expressing his own views which, not being representative f of American opinion, can be ig- I nored. On the other hand Russia J joins in the wider chorus of ap- j oroval of the proposals in the J noble appeal,’’ and officially

states that the people of the Soviet Union are sincerely inter- 1 . ested in the preservation of universal peace. All the South American Republics and Canada . endorse the appeal. As the President of Panama stated, only 1 minds set against the interests of . world peace can formulate objections against the proposals put j forward. A typical American ; comment is that the President’s! plea will put the Dictators “on the ' | spot.” ! The highly significant depar- ; , ture of the American fleet for the ' Pacific continues to be the subject j of major speculation and it is gen- i j erally believed to be associated : ; with the advance southward of Japan which holds threats to ; American, as well as British and | French interests. hollowing on j the occupation of Hainan, Japan 1 recently annexed the Spratley, or i 1 Storm islets, a geographically in- * significant group of rocks in the China Sea, midway between ! Labuan, in British North Borneo ; and the coast of French Cam- ! bodia. During the past twenty years the Japanese have spasmodically visited the group for i phosphates for the collection of which they erected “establishments.’’ hollowing upon lines i | made familiar by the Dictators ! ■in Europe, the Japanese Foreign | i Office announced early in April I I that “in order to avoid unnecesj sary disputes with France, ’’ Japan ! has annexed the group, “recognised” (the statement adds) “as I | being without an owner.” As a j Sydney authority emphasised at i the time the reference to disputes with France and the history of recent years entirely contradict I okio’s pretensions. The French Nav}' occupied the group between | 1930 and 1933 and the French „ Government formally announced sovereignty over it in July of the latter year. Japan protested at the time, but in 1935 waived the objections and recognised French ownership. It has since been j officially declared from Paris that the dispute was revived later, and that last month the French suggested arbitration. These disclosures support from the French side the strategic importance of the Spratley group which the Japanese action suggests. The situation of the islets in the eastern approach to the Malacca Strait, the fact that they contain a shelter or shelters capable of use by aircraft within flying distance of Hanoi. Singapore, Borneo oilfields, and Manila, and the further fact that they carry Japanese military outposts 700 miles farther south from Hainan, all reinforce suspicion of Japan’s motives, although there have been suggestions recently that there is a strong section of thought in Japan which favours more friendly relations with Britain, America and France, for sound economic reasons. Both the British and the French were affronted when Hainan was seized in February. That coup by the Japanese might be defended j —if anything in the invasion of China can be defended—as an incident completing the blockade of the coasts against imports of war material. But Spratley serves no such purpose and its annexation constituted outright provocation, indulged in while European unrest was occuoving the full attention of the Western Powers. It pointed clearly to the southward drive of Japan into the | Indies and the opinion has been j expressed that it would be surprising if the Western Powers should tolerate for long any parade of Japanese strength so far south, or if the United States could view undisturbed the creation of a lapanese base so near to the Japanese settlement at Davos, in the Philippines. The event lent added interest to the negotiations begun last month in 7’okio in which the Japanese Foreign Minister, apparently taking the initiative, intimated that he desires to “adjust relations” with Britain, F ranee, and the. United States. A commentator has remarked that a consideration not to be entirely excluded is that Japan, becoming a little desperate in the subtle toils of the China “incident” and anxiously looking for bargaining counters for a settlement with the Western Powers, 1 is establishing a position in the China Sea south of Hong Kong for that purpose. , The predominant military . party in Japan are playing for high stakes and there are distinct signs from within that country ' that they have gambled beyond ; their means. The currency posi- 1 tion is toppling: the Japanese 1 Press regards with dismay the ( soaring war expenditure—bud- ( j geted at over 9.000 million yen j I this year, 6,000 millions of it from bonds; and the Tokio > I “Nichi Nichi" writes that “with j one false step the nation will i | plunge into the peril of vicious in- r | Ration, while the dark shadow' of t j the difficulty of acquiring ma- } J f erials is fast pressing upon us. Mr 1 K. K. Kawakami, a Japanese r journalist of international renown, t writing recently in the “Nichi r Nichi,” from America warned his ? ~ountrymen that the United r States would not tro to war with c fapan over the violation of China or over the Open Door, but that

if Japan entered an AngloGerman war on the side of Germany, “and attacked Hong Kong nr other British possessions farther south, the United States will leap into the fray on the British side.” The latest developments indicate that the Japanese writer s warning was not without foundation. Meanwhile the American is speeding on its mission and the world awaits the replies of Te European Dictators to the American President’s “noble appeal” for peace.