REBUFF FOR JAPAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24635, 17 June 1941, Page 4

REBUFF FOR JAPAN

It is now plain that Japan has met with a serious rebuff in her trade negotiations with the Netherlands East Indies. Mr Matsuoka’s design was to secure nothing less than a monopoly of the export trade of the Indies, more particularly in such raw materials as tin, rubber, quinine and fat-producing products of which Japanese industry is in urgent need. The negotiations between the tw r o Governments were inaugurated in October of last year. The first Japanese mission was authorised to discuss oil alone, and in fact did succeed, within two months, in securing contracts which were hailed as satisfactory. The United States and the British Governments consented to- a policy whereby Japan was furnished with some 40 per cent, of her petroleum imports from British and American sources of supply in the Indies, the chief consideration being that any drastic curtailment of oil shipments, either from the United States or from Anglo-American, sources in the Dutch islands might provoke Japan to take steps to obtain by force what was denied to her by agreement. Far Eastern entanglements were naturally not desired while it was imperative that American aid for Great Britain should be concentrated in, other theatres of war. The original Japanese demands on the Netherlands authorities were, however, quickly enlarged to cover not trade

alone, but political privileges as well, and the familiar technique of the threat to use force was employed to break down the stubborn Dutch resistance. The Dutch showed a ready inclination to trade with Japan on reasonable terms, but none at all to grant a potential enemy most-favoured-nation treatment, and that firm attitude has been maintained throughout the discussions which are now said to have finally broken down.

Mr van Kleffens, the Netherlands Foreign Minister, declared in a recent broadcast that the Dutch in the Indies want to live in peace —but, he added significantly, not peace at any price. “ Dark clouds have arisen over the Pacific,” he went on. “ There is tension now which did not exist before. Never a move threatening others can be expected from our side, but we shall certainly resist unreasonable demands and fight if threatened in this area with armed force.” That appears to be the position as it exists to-day. There have been reports from Tokio of the breaking off of the negotiations at Batavia and a suggestion from the same quarter that the only alternatives remaining are “ statesmanship or a resort to force.” Statesmanship, on the Japanese side, has in the past been singularly barren of results likely to ensure peace in the Pacific. Japan has sought to force demands on the East Indies, which , would certainly give her Vital goods, possibly for reexport to, ’Germany, while the Dutch refusal tb yield to pressure in the matter of trade, or to permit Japanese penetration of the Indies, has obviously had substantial backing in Washington as well as in London. In the broadcast to which we have referred Mr van Kleffeps quoted Sir Robert Brooke-Popham, British Commander-in-Chief in the Far East, as saying that a line extending from Singapore across the Indies to Australia must be regarded as a single unit, and that attack anywhere along that line would be treated as an attack on the whole line. The Dutch Minister said, too, that in the event of war in the Pacific the United States could be counted upon to “ lend assistance to those capable of helping themselves in a struggle against unprovoked aggression.” The implications of those statements are plain enough, insofar as they speak of an Allied understanding for the defence of the Pacific. If Japan now resolves that stronger action is necessary against the Netherlands Indies she .will do so with a full knowledge of what the consequences of an extreme, step must be.