AMERICA FIRM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23411, 29 July 1939, Page 13

AMERICA FIRM

JAPAN'S POLICY VITAL DIFFERENCES SETTLEMENT REQUIRED THE NULLIFIED TREATY By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received July 28, 5.5 p.m.) NEW YOTIK, July 27 The situation created by the United States Government nullifying the 1911 treaty with Jap.an was advanced a stage further to-day. The Secretary of State, Mr. Cordell Hull, said there must be a satisfactory settlement of the political differences between the United States and Japan before any new treaty could be negotiated. The Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Henry Morgenthau, said his department was studying means to follow up the abrogation of the treaty by action relative to United States purchases of merchandise, silver and gold, the latter of which totalled more than 400,000,000 dollars in the past two years. Abrogation May Operate Earlier The Treasury's action against Japan, it is thought, might come even before the termination of the six months' notice. It is believed that the alleged Japanese subsidies on cotton and cloth exports to the United States may elicit penalty tariff duties here. "We will take a fresh look at countervailing duties," said Mr. Morgenthau, but he declined to explain further. The Washington correspondent of the New York Times says the Treasury's gold and silver purchases have assisted Japan in a large measure to finance her aggression. China's bullion is being converted to dollar balances, which are being used to finance arms and raw material purchases either in the United States or Europe. The Washington correspondent of the Associated Press of America states: "Japanese 'officials cannot fail to read into the development a plain intimation that the platform planks of both the major, parties in the Presidential election in 1940 are apt to call for firm resistance to any Japanese encroachment on American treaty or other, rights anv\vhere~in the Far East. Loss of Prestige Offset Furthermore, the abrogation move tends to offset somewhat the loss of prestige abroad which the President suffered owing to his failure to obtain a revision of the neutrality law in the present session of Congress. Senator W. E. Borah issued a statement to the effect that he was in favour of the imposition of an embargo against arms shipments to Japan, but explained that the idea had nothing to do with the abrogation of the treaty, since he advocated a similar embargo against all nations engaged in war in order to prevent the United States being involved. V The New York Daily News, which has the largest circulation in America, has a significant ' leading article 1 which states that the abrogation has cut the United States in on the "white war" which Japan is fighting with the British in China. , ' Blockade of Japan Suggested "We cannot say we deplore the State Department's action," says this paper. "It seems to us that the times continue to be appropriate for Americans and Britons to consider the advisability of a certain "whole hog" move that has been suggested for the deflation of the Japanese military caste. "We mean a joint American and British long-distance naval blockade of Japan keyed to Singapore, Hawaii and the Aleutians. Such a blockade would, in all likelihood, be bloodless, sinceHhe Japanese Navy could not come out in force, far enough to try to break it."