WAR IN THE EAST.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20296, 4 May 1934, Page 7

WAR IN THE EAST.

Must Come, Says Pacific Authority. THE MENACE OF JAPAN. The menace of Japan, of which so much has lately been written and said, cannot be taken too seriously, according to Professor J. Macmillan Brown, who is an authority on Pacific relations. lie prophesies that the next war, will be between Russia and Japan, and , that this may well be followed by a j bitter struggle involving the whole world. i Professor Macmillan Brown, who j will be eighty-eight years of age to- J morrow, said that he was well ae- • quainted with the countries bordering the Pacific and their peoples. He had travelled the west coast of the two Americas, and he had travelled extensively among the Pacific Islands, in New Guinea, the Malay Archipelago, and China and Japan. Japan was now seeing what a grave mistake she had made in the eighteenth century by drawing her cloak about her in isolation from the nations of Europe. Had it not been for this preference for isolation, Japan would have taken control of Australia,, New Zealand, and the west coast of America. Now those lands were populated by people who would resist invasion to the utmost. But the need for Japanese expansion was increasingly great, and the military party was in control of Japan. Not Far Distant. The flare-up was not far distant, and the next war would be between Japan and Soviet Russia for the possession of China and the mastery of Asia. Wifh the millions of Chinese to draw uopn for her armies, there was no saying what a nation could do in an attempt to attain the mastery of the world. Professor Macmillan Brown referred to the bitterness existing between Japan and the United States over the Californian dispute. It was this, he believed, that had induced the cordial relations between Litvinoff and President Roosevelt, which foreshadowed a Russo-American alliance against Japan Japan realised that Russian possession of Vladivostock and the maritime provinces was a threat which could not be ignored. With the range of modern bombing aeroplanes, Russia could completely dominate Japan from there, and Japan was determined to have that stretch of coast. “ The great Powers must be prepared for the trouble coming from the East,” Professor Macmillan Brown added. Professor Macmillan Brown, who Is living in retirement in his beautiful Cashmere home, is in good health, except for a cold from which he is just now suffering. “ I don’t usually’ celebrate mv birthday in any way,” he said when interviewed, “ but my correspondents won’t let me forget when