The Dominion THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1921. “A JAPANESE SURRENDER”

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 70, 15 December 1921, Page 6

The Dominion THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1921. “A JAPANESE SURRENDER”

The naval and other agreements reached, or in process of completion, at the Washington Conference demand of all the Powers concerned a sweeping adjustment to new conditions, and this applies to none of these Powers with greater force than to Japan. It is only natural that the weight of opinion in the two English-speaking nations should heartily favour an understanding which will enable them to live in good neighbourly relations and abstain from squandering their wealth in competitive armaments. It is natural and almost inevitable also that France and other European nations should be willing to participate in such an understanding, and in the great advantages it confers. Japan’s acceptance of the new international order was not as confidently' to be taken for granted beforehand. That she has as much to gain as America or any European Power from co-oper-ating to uphold international justice and preserve the peace of the world is beyond question. The fact has been affirmed freely and emphatically bv her foremost statesmen. But Japan is a country in which account has to be taken of other elements than those which arc prepared to deal frankly on their merits with the issues of the day. While many of her statesmen and political leaders are of an enlightened and progressive spirit, an influential, though not always conspicuous, part in her national affairs is taken by the members of an intense!}' conservative nobility, who have no respect for Western ideals and reserve their loyalty for ancient traditions which teach, amongst other things, an ultimate dependence upon military power. In the internal politics of Japan, the struggle between old and new ideas is not by any means at an end, but so far as the creation of a new international order in the Pacific *s concerned, fairly convincing evidence is already offered that the support of the Japanese nation is given to those who favour a friendly understanding with America' and the Western Powers, and that those who regard the Washington treaties with' doubt or hostility represent a minority of waning strength and influence. Ono or two anti-Govcrnmcnt newspapers in Japan are quoted to-day as declaring that the Washington naval agreement amounts to a Japanese surrender and submission to America.. It is added, however, that the announcement of the Quadruple Entente, is generally well received, and the true position is very fairly stated by the Japanese journal which “hopes that America will be relieved by the elimination of the so-called Japanese menace in the Pacific, and 1 Japan will be equally relieved of the alien menace to Asia.”* It is plain enough that in becoming a party to a Pacific Entente., Japan has sacrificed nothing that she could fairly expect to retain, or that in an ultimate view was worth retaining, and that on the other h'and she has as great an interest as any other Power in promoting international concord in the Far East. A strong case is made out in support of the opinion that in the extent to which Japan’s past policy has been directed to the exploitation of China, it promised to bring her in the end nothing but disaster. No one, of course, would dreqlm of suggesting that Japan is the only Power which has been guilty of injustice to China, but it is probably true that she has better reasons than any other nation for reversing her past policy on the Asiatic mainland. This policy all the more imperatively needs revision since its material results to Japan arc trivial in comparison with fhc widespread' antagonism to all things Japanese it has aroused in China. Japan, for instance, has eagerly set herself to open up fields of colonisation on the Asiatic mainland, but her people have shown little eagerness to occupy these areas. In his book. The. Truth- About (Elina anil Javan, Mr. Putnam Weale mentions that since the Russo-Japanese War the Japanese, population of Korea has increased by only 400,000, while during the same period the. Korean native population has increased by over three millions, “and in less than two decades the land will be far more crowded' than Japan.” In Manchuria, also, the Japanese find themselves unable to compete with the Chinese cither as farmers or in nett}' trade. “It is not sufficiently known,” Mr. Weale observes, “that since 1000 the population of China

fias increased by 68 millions—that is, by considerably more than either the present population of Germany or Japan. . . Although Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido is practically uninhabited, and could carry twelve million people at the lowest computation, she vainly trios to push her people on to the Asiatic mainland, so as to justify her socalled Asiatic Monroe Doctrine, which means for her not the protection, but the subjection, of the East.” Colonisation, Mr. Weale declares, is alien to the nature of tho Japanese; “it is their military leaders who are trying almost by force to make them build a fabric of empire ...” Even those who are fess severely critical of Japanese policy may agree that Japan has much to gain from such a change in policy and methods as is clemand'ed in the understanding reached, at Washington. Living up to that understanding, Japan, like other nations, will be able to concentrate on peaceful development resources that have been wasted hitherto on armaments, and incidentally should bo able to extend her trade with China in very much better conditions than she has ever been able to establish by a policy of aggression and intimidation. An agreement which offers these results and goes as far as an agreement may to avert the war between America and Japan, possibly involving other Powers, which lately seemed to be in prospect, certainly does not involve tho surrender of anything Japan would be wise to retain. Some of her ancient institutions and usages are no doubt threatened bv the action of her Government in making her a party to tho Washington treaties, but fnr Japan, as for other .nations, the ■wavs of peace are the ways of enlightened progress.