“BASED ON FORCE”

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 62, Issue 4423, 9 May 1941, Page 4

“BASED ON FORC E”

UNADORNED REALISM. Leading British and American officials in Washington consider that the Russo-Japanese neutrality pact was accepted by Japan as a second choice, writes the Washington correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald. The officials are convinced that Japan tried to negotiate a non-aggression treaty, but would not pay Russia’s price. In a conversation known to have taken place between a high British and a Russian diplomat here after the announcement of the ’agreement, the British diplomat chided Russia for having given Japan a free hand in the south. The Russian, however, smiled.

“ Actually,” he said, “ we have satisfied both Germany and Japan Without altering the basis of the situation. Remember that, whatever the situation is, it is based on the status quo, and no matter how many agreements are written, the status quo is.based on force, and force only. Japan and Russia have kept an equilibrium in the north by maintaining a certain military equality there, and any withdrawal by Japan of her military units in the north would, as she knows, simply upset the status quo most unfavourably for her, since Russia would then have predominance of force there.”

The British diplomat could only wonder at such unadorned realism, and conclude that the Russo-Japanese agreement had really changed nothing in the relationship of the two countries and had given Japan no more advantage than she had before.