The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 1939 Testing Time in China

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21377, 21 June 1939, Page 6

The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 1939 Testing Time in China

ACCOimiXG to the Tokio correspondent of The IB Times the most unfortunate aspect of the Tientsin dispute is the manner in which the issues have been allowed to bring British and Japanese prestige into conflict. It would seem that this is exactly what the -lapanese Army leaders in North China intended, and it is more than probable that they have been persuaded —if persuasion were necessary—into this course of conduct by Germany and Italy, for the Army, as opposed to the Tokio Government, favours a military alliance with the totalitarian States. There can be little doubt that Germany and Italy would like Great Britain to be distracted by Far Eastern problems at a time when her attitude in Europe, is hardening. Mr Chamberlain has said in the House of Commons that if the Japanese are willing to keep the dispute at Tientsin “to simple points of difference” they should be capable of amicable local settlement. For the past few days, however, it has been clear that the Japanese wish to enlarge the dispute in such a way that all British treaty rights in China are to be challenged, and if there were extreme developments there can be no present certainty as to the form which British retaliatory action would take.

For Japan to embarrass Britain to any serious extent it would be necessary to isolate the dispute to one between Britain and the Japanese, but there., are signs already that this has failed. It is almost ' inevitable that a challenge to British treaty rights must be a challenge also to the treaty rights of other Powers in China and it is reassuring to find that the United States is taking this view. Mr Cordell Hull, the American Secretary of State, has made an invaluable declaration in which he said: “The Government is not concerned with the original incident relating to the requested delivery of four Chinese. It is concerned, however, with the nature and significance of the subsequent developments in their broader aspects, coupled with other past and present acts and utterances in other parts of China.” In commenting on Mr Hull’s statement the New York Times says: “We are bound to be concerned with the method and objective of the Japanese attack and the implications it holds for us.” To succeed with their scheme for smashing British prestige in China the Japanese would have to be certain that Britain was their only opponent. It seems unlikely now that Britain and the United States can be divided as Japan had hoped. The Army leaders, therefore, will have to think more calmly about the situation before they force an issue in which the combined Far Eastern prestige of both Great Britain and the United States will be at stake. Further, France cannot be disinterested either. Japan has already had one lesson in China and she should not be eager for another unless her position is so precarious that a gambler’s throw is justi lied.