FRANCE IN THE ORIENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23082, 6 July 1938, Page 12

FRANCE IN THE ORIENT

A group of scattered reefs and lagoons in the South China Sea, without attraction for settlement and offering only turtles, fish, seaweed and birds' nests as prizes for competitive adventure, may seem meagrely entitled to become a subject of serious international quarrel. Even the fact that the nests are by some folk considered good eating does not add much apparent value. But to judge on this wise is to forget that other things than food are often sought with greater national avidity, especially when war is in the offing or likely to come over the horizon; and one of these other things is position, an essential in strategy. The story of Heligoland is matched in a thousand places as tho centuries are scanned. This is the case with the Paracels, southeast of Hai-nan on China's coast and a third of the way across from French Indo-China to the Philippines. Already this year these inhospitable islets have been in tho news relating to the Sino-Japanese conflict, and now they enter again, this time with sharp emphasis. The French have sent a body of Annamese police and taken possession, with a view to creating there a seaplane base. The motive is precautionary. A few days ago it was reported that Britain and France, perturbed about Japan's thrusting assault on South China, had joined in a request that the Japanese should not occupy the large island of Hai-nan, because such an occupation would endanger the security of their territory at Hongkong and Kwang-chow-wan; the Portuguese coastal town of Macao would also have been threatened. Japan thereupon protested innocence of any design to occupy Hai-nan. But Japanese assurances have lately sunk in foreign estimation, and this French move in taking tho uninhabited Paracels is proof that Franco, apprehensive of tho territorial safety of Indo-China, docs not mean to be caught napping. The Paracels arc only 150 miles from her coast, and a seaplane base there will givo opportunity for effective defence. She has informed Britain of this step, and doubtless British approval has been at least tacitly given. Japan's speedy objection lends colour to the belief that a menacingly ruthless extension of her southward onslaught has been contemplated^