The Daily News SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 1934. JAPAN AND THE LEAGUE.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 April 1934, Page 6

The Daily News

SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 1934. JAPAN AND THE LEAGUE.

NEW PLYMOUTH. Currie Street. STRATFORD, Broadway. HAWERA. High Street.

The “unofficial” statement made in Tokio a few days ago has been followed by an unequivocal warning to the League of Nations that Japan proposes to follow her own policy in Eastern Asia and that the opinion of the League will have but little weight. The statement is definite, and, from one point of view, well reasoned. What is not so clear—and upon it everything of importance depends—is what the policy of Japan is to be,-and how it is to be carried out. Co-operation of all the nations in Eastern Asia under Japanese leadership may mean one of two things. It may mean the willing co-ordination of diplomacy and trading towards the common ideal of an Eastern Asia regaining the position it once held as the centre of the world’s trading and of its highest intellectual culture. To such co-operation scarcely any nonAsian nation would take exception. The history of civilisation has shown that the victory is always to the swiftest in the race, and the system that is alive and full of energy and the competition of West and East must adjust itself to the certainty that the advantages which either possesses will not remain the perquisite of a single competitor or group of competitors in the struggle 'for supremacy among mankind. All that the arts, science, mechanics, and commercial and financial training have to offer are now obtainable by any nation which cares to take the necessary trouble, and Japan has shown more willingness and capability to acquire what used to be called “western civilisation” than any of her neighbours. The fruits of her tenacity, sagacity and determination are becoming more apparent every year. In diplomacy, in military and naval exercises, in trade and manufacture Japan claims the right to be regarded as a leading nation among the peoples, West- or East, and it is a right no other nation is likely to challenge. It is not surprising that seeing how close co-opera-tion with China could be, to the advantage of both countries, Japan should shout aloud the wisdom of such a course. She herself is lacking in certain essential raw materials, and of them all the most pressing is land whereon her ever-growing population can be absorbed. In China she sees a nation possessing not only vast potentialities in raw material but a market for the goods that Japan considers can and should be provided by the East for the East. She sees China in a hopeless condition of internal strife; she sees corruption and waste going on, and on more than one occasion these twin sources of misery have seemed to be the foundations upon which Western nations have built up power and prestige in China. There is some justification for this point of view. The League of Nations committee which condemned Japan’s military seizure of Manchuria admitted that she was correct in saying that China had proved herself impotent or unwilling to carry out treaty rights, and the position in China can scarcely be said to have shown any great improvement since then. But if what the Japanese spokesman to the League of Nations called “Japan’s firm will to assume responsibility for the peace of Eastern Asia in close co-opera-tion with China” means a definite suzerainty over an independent nation, an interference with China’s right to order her affairs as seems best to her own people, the statement enters an entirely different atmosphere. For example, there is the question of treaty rights upon which Japan has given explicit assurances of non-interference, an assurance that brought from Great Britain an expression of willingness to listen to the Japanese case for “co-operation,” and a request has been made for a fuller interpretation of Japan’s intention and utterance. Thirty years ago Japan fought a Western nation for the right to a predominating influence in the East. Though her forces were victorious, the result of that conflict to Japan was scarcely one that is likely to tempt her to any swashbuckling challenge to all non-Asian powers who have interests in China, or beyond them to the full membership of the League of Nations. -Nevertheless the military domination of China is not regarded by that nation as beyond the possibilities of Japan’s ambitions. The authorities of China are aware of the effect upon their own people, especially the younger people, of the contrast between Japanese efficiency and Chinese

blundering and lack of coherent government. The statesmen of China know the extent of the “peaceful penetration” of Japan during the past few years. They are aware of the growing discontent of young China with conditions in their own land, and they suspect that Japan is utilising these and other circumstances as steps towards her goal of supremacy over all the nations of Eastern Asia. Great Britain as the friendly co-operator with both nations has taken the wiser course. She does not ignore Japan’s statement, nor does she accept blindly the interpretation of it given by China or other countries. She has asked Japan for a little more of her friendly confidence, and it is probable that her request will receive the amplest fulfilment.