ACCORD HELD CERTAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 33, 7 August 1936, Page 8

ACCORD HELD CERTAIN

JAPAN AND GERMANY

PERSISTENT RUMOUR

Reports of a German-Japanese military alliance, or more informal agreement of this nature, continue to arise steadily in the United States and Europe; official denials are as frequently made in Tokio and Berlin, writes Frank Hedges from Tokio to the "San Francisco Chronicle."

It .is absolutely impossible in the Far East to obtain confirmation of this persistent rumour, and yet it is a rumour which refuses to die because it is predicated primarily on actual conditions which seem to necessitate such a working military arrangement.

By the same token, those conditions are such as to make military co-opera-tion between Japan and Germany certain in the event of war with Soviet Russia, and so there is no necessity of putting a promise to this effect in writing. It would come almost automatically without the existence of a written treaty in the event of war. Hachiro Arita, Minister of Foreign Affairs, denies without equivocation the existence of a German-Japanese alliance or even of an informal understanding. ' Those who disbelieve his denials likewise credit Arita himself with having negotiated it. . . In the position of Japan's Ambassador to Belgium, they point out, he was in an admirable position to : negotiate such a treaty without attracting the eyes of the world, as would Japan's Ambassador to Berlin. Arita laughingly replied: "I plead not guilty," when asked point blank if he had. done _ this. He likewise denied the possibility of the existence of an agreement or understanding between powers in Berlin and Tokio other than the two : Foreign Offices— in other words, the War Offices or General Staffs.-; Granted the entire truth of these denials, the factual situation is such that Germany and Japan would almost automaticallyr become allies in the event that either is attacked by, or attacks, Soviet Russia. ■ , ' MANY DANGER POINTS. The friction between Berlin and Moscow, the military pact between Moscow and Paris aimed, primarily at Berlin, Germany's unquestioned territorial ambitions towards the east at.the expense of the U.S.S.R., probably by an exchange of commodities (in this case, actual territory) with Poland, are well known. The German-Russian situation is such that it points in the direction of war unless present trends and ambitions are deflected. ■ r ■ The serious tension between the Soviet State and'the Japanese Empire is likewise an established fact. War between them might be precipitated at-any moment, not by orders of either Moscow or Tokio, but by some major incident along the borders of Manchukuo. There is genuine conflict of inter- j ests between Russia and Japan in the Far East, cpnflict of the type which provokes war. Their territorial ambitions clash; their China policies are so utterly at variance as to make reconciliation by peaceful means impossible; their economic interests, particularly as regards sources of raw materials, are in conflict; their ideologies are fundamentally different; the hatred left by the/Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5 has never died. Russia and Japan are preparing for war, and for war in the near future. In may, almost by . a miracle, be avoided, but neither is banking upon this contingency. If a Russo-Japanese war breaks out, it will probably afford Hitler just the opportunity for which he is waiting. If, on the other hand war between Germany and Soviet Russia should come first, there can be little doubt tha^'Japan would seize the chance to strike a telling and decisive blow. ..:■-.-.•