The Pahiatua Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1938. CLOSING THE OPEN DOOR.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14039, 15 December 1938, Page 4

The Pahiatua Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1938. CLOSING THE OPEN DOOR.

Thprinciple of the Open I>oor in China, has its diplomatic and legal base in the Nine-Power Treaty of Washington of !922, and it is this treaty that is spoken of in the cablegram recently. Japan, it is said, demands its revision, and failing that threatens to undertake drastic reprisals against Britain and America in the Yangtse Valley, and virtually to blockade Hong Kong. The treaty guarantees the independence and integrity of China, binds the Powers to aid China in maintaining a stable government, stipulates equal commercial opportunity in China for all nations, and restrains the signatories from seeking special privileges in China at the expense of other nations. Japan is a signatory, and so is Italy, but Germany is not The treaty was violated first by Japan m 1931 with the establishment of Manchukuo. This puppet State passed many laws at variance with rhe treaty, including a trade-control law under which British and American firms lost their trade overnight The Open Door in Manchukuo is a door that opens outwards only, despite constant claims by the Japanese Government to the contrary. Japan all along has taken up a two-faced attitude. Mr Hirota only last May declared that it was the policy of Japan to continue the Open Door in the occupied territory of China, but at the same time Admiral Suetsugu Minister of the Interior, was declaring that the mission of Japan implied the ejection of the white- races from .Eastern Asia. Despite Tokio protestations Japan is pursuing a policy of monopolistic exploitation in China, and the Anglo-American stake is so vast that such a policy cannot be tolerated. Japan has not come out in the open about it so far. but the wot Id will be on the eve of big events if reprisals are to be taken against Britain and America.