STUDIED FOR SOME TIME

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 25, 29 July 1939, Page 9

STUDIED FOR SOME TIME

U.S. ABROGATION

PEOPLE'S FEELING

INFLUENCED BY JAPANESE ACTIONS

NEW YORK, July 28,

The Washington correspondent of the Associated Press of America intimates that the decision to abrogate the 1911 treaty with Japan was not sudden, But had been studied for a considerable time.

Officials had been carefully checking American sentiment towards Japan for several months, and came to the conclusion that Japan's actions one by one had been adding a few blocks of American, opinion against her.

They believe that Japan by now has affronted, injured, or damaged missionaries or missions of practically every American religious group represented in China and lost the sympathies of most of them. They think that by now Japan has damaged all American companies having branches or interests in China and has aroused their resentment. Repeated protests by the American chambers of commerce in China attest to this viewpoint. "ONLY CORRECT THING TO DO." The New York "Herald-Tribune," in a leading article, says: "Short of an ultimatum to Japan severing diplomatic relations unless she gave prompt evidence of respect for the treaties she has signed, it was the only correct thing to do. "The very resentful official reaction in Tokio to Mr. Hull's notification is extremely- interesting as a confession that Japan intends to deserve six months hence all the punitive restrictions on her trade with the United States which the expiration of the treaty will make possible. It does not seem likely that the Japanese. army will wait six months to experiment with some of the reprisal measures which Tokio is in such haste to think up, and, once they start, as their tactics against the British give us good reason to know, no one in the State Department will have time to waste on redrafting the commercial treaty with Japan." NAVAL BLOCKADE SUGGESTED. The New York '"Daily News," which has the largest circulation in America, has a significant editorial on the abrogation of the treaty. It states that the abrogation has "cut the United States in on the 'white war' which Japan is fighting with the British in China. "We cannot say we deplore the State ! Department's action," the newspaper adds. "It seems to us that the times continue to be appropriate for Americans and Britons to consider the advisability of a certain 'whole-hog' move which has been suggested for the deflation of the Japanese military caste. We mean a joint American-British long-distance naval blockade of Japan, keyed on Singapore, Hawaii, and the Aleutian Islands. Such -a blockade would, in all likelihood, be bloodless, since the Japanese Navy could not come out in force far enough to try to break it." i GREAT DRAMA IN ASIA. •The "New York Times" says in a leader: "To each of the three protagonists a great drama is now being played in Asia. The abrogation carries a message of capital importance. To China it cannot fail to bring encouragement in a dark hour. ... For the British Government the action has a message of no less significance than that to the Government of China. It notifies Britain that if she adopts a stronger policy in the face of Japanese pressure she will stand not. alone, j . . . For the British are not unaware that the first line of defence of their own Imperial interests in Asia lies in China. j

"Finally, to the Government of Japan the action says that we still take our promises seriously; that we

still regard ourselves and Japan, too, as bound by the terms of the NinePower Treaty, which pledges mutual recognition of the independence and territorial and administrative integrity of China, and that we still intend to use that influence. We can, by means short, of war, make certain that this independence and integrity are respected."