JAPAN AND POWERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 19 April 1939, Page 4

JAPAN AND POWERS

POLICY MAY BE CHANGED POSITION IN WORLD WAR LONDON, 11th April. There is increasing evidence of a change n Japan's policy towards foreign interests in China. First, there has been the recent conference between the British Ambassadors in Japan and China, Sir Robert Craigie, and Sir Archibald Clark Kerr, and Tokio’s cool reception of Spain’s adherence to the anti-Comintern Pact. Now comes a report of an address by the Japanese Premier. Baron Hiranuma, to liaison officers, who have just been appointed to offices in Tientsin. Shanghai. Tsingtao, Amoy, and Inner Mongolia. Baron Hiranuma said that the Japanese Government desired to settle as quickly as possible questions pending with other Powers in China. The work lof reconstruction was now beginning, he said, and must naturally be carried on in co-operation with the military authorities, but, as foreign relations were involved, liaison officers must also maintain close contact with the Foreign Office in order to avoid discrepancies in national policy. Japan, he continued, was not seeking to exclude, or restrict, foreign activities except fn fields where Japan’s national security or vital economic interests were concerned. THE SOUTHWARD DRIVE The Japanese newspapers predict a conference to discuss the re-opening of the Yangtse river.

The fisheries dispute with Russia having apparently been settled, it appears that Japan is anxious also to improve relations with Britain, the United States and France.

It is impossible not to see these moves in relation to European developments. as well as in the light of the growing conviction that the Chinese hinterland is unconquerable, and of Japan’s most acute economic troubles. It is considered that the firmer policy oi the Democracies towards the RomeBerlin Axis, and the recent declarations of the United States Government have convinced Japan that she is likely to be in a less happy position in the event of a world war than she apparently imagined in September last. Since September, too, she has gained Canton, Hainan Island, in the Gulf of Tongking, and the Spratley group in the South China Sea. She may feel that she needs time for consolidation, and that she is not ready for further commitments. During the last six months the Dutch and Australian defence preparations, and the American plans in relation to Guam have given a new complexion to possible Japanese plans for further advances to the south. ANTI-COMINTERN PACT Official Japanese approval of Spain’s adherence to the Anti-Comintern Pact is so perfunctory that it reveals indifference, declares the Tokio correspondent of “The Times.” “It is evidently regarded.” he states, “as the Italian and German answer to the Anglo-Polish talks, and of European interest only. “The Foreign Office spokesman. Mr Kawai, did not attempt to link up Spain’s decision with Japanese interests. Japanese indifference is understandable when it is remembered that the Anti-Comintern Pact began as a German-Japanese agreement directed against Russia, but that it has since become a combination of Italy and Germany and their satellite Slates against Britain and France.

“The Anti-Comintern Pact has an obvious value to Japan, but an AntiDemocracy League involves too manj liabilities.”