Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1941. DANGERS IN THE PACIFIC.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 November 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1941. DANGERS IN THE PACIFIC.

T'N defining the policy of his Government the Japanese Prime Minister, General To,jo, had demanded, amongst other things, a free hand against China and the withdrawal of all assistance by third Powers to that country. Apart from other possibilities the situation holds—possibilities arising from Japan’s threatening move towards Thailand and Malaya by way of Indo-China and the more or less definite Japanese threat to the Russian forces in Siberia —it is thus clear that the head of the Japanese Government is demanding for his country immunity in a policy of international banditry.

That well-established fact makes it a little difficult to share the optimism of the Australian Minister to Japan (Sir John Latham) who has returned to Australia to discuss with the Commonwealth Government “his impressions of eastern affairs generally.” As he was reported yesterday, Sir John Latham said on his arrival in Sydney.-—

Many people think war in the Pacific is inevitable. Though I recognise the danger of it, I find myself unable to share these gloomy apprehensions.

If this hopeful estimate of the position is to be accepted, it evidently must be assumed that the Japanese Government is engaged in a gigantic attempted bluff and is saying a good many things it has no idea of venturing to support by action. It is, of course, perfectly true, as Sir John Latham has observed, that there are “many good reasons why Japan should not engage in new warlike adventures at the present time,” but the position in the Pacific is at present intensely critical precisely for the, reason that the Japanese Government is threatening to engage in new warlike adventures in defiance both of justice and of common sense.

The moral issues at stake are defined quite clearly. The so-called China incident, which Japan, as her Prime Minister has admitted, is still a long way from settling, is simply an attempt to subdue and exploit a neighbouring nation by brute force. What the Japanese Foreign Minister, ""Mr Togo, has had the assurance to call Japan’s successful mediation between Indo-China and Thailand is just as obviously an extension of predatory aggression. The true character of Japanese policy as it has developed in Eastern Asia is in no way obscured by the use of sounding phrases—the co-prosperity sphere, the new order in East Asia, a contribution to the peace of the world and so forth. In using these and similar phrases, Japanese Ministers and other militarist spokesmen are engaging in an elaborate, but childish and entirely unconvincing game of make-believe.

There is palpable pretence, too, in claims like that made by a Japanese newspaper which invites the United States to note “the iron determination of the 100 million people of Japan.” The commanding fact here is that the Japanese people are allowed only to have the censored and doctored news their Government chooses to let them have. Even in the Axis-occupied countries of Europe, some people contrive to listen in to foreign broadcasts, but in Japan no private citizen is allowed to possess a short-wave wireless set. The Japanese Government may be confident of its ability to hold in subjection the huge population of the island empire. It certainly is not counting upon the conscious and united support of the Japanese masses.

According to Sir John Latham: “The increasing successes of Britain and her allies have caused Japan to ask if she has not made a mistake in her pact with Germany and Italy.” With their hopes staked, admittedly, on German victory, the Japanese militarists have been exceedingly reluctant to recognise and acknowledge the actual trend of the war. Little over a month ago, for example, the semi-official Domei agency was earnestly urging Germany to conclude the war with Russia. That done, the agency added, the Germans could turn on Suez and establish sea communications with the Far East. Japan then would be able to remove “the evil hand of Britain from the Far East.” Talk of this kind, and much that has a place in the current utterances of General Tojo and his colleagues, suggests that the Japanese militarists have deceived themselves almost as completely as they have deceived, the people over whom they exercise a despotic rule.