JAPANESE DIPLOMATIC JUGGLING.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 196, 4 September 1937, Page 4

JAPANESE DIPLOMATIC JUGGLING.

Tlie fighting in and around Shanghai continues, ^ and seemingly with ever growing intensity as the Japanese bring along further reinforcements. It is, of course, quite lmpossible for us at this distance to assess the true signihcance of the local successes that are claimed by either side, while also there must be doubt as to the reliability of the announcements made. It can, however, be gathered with fair confidence that the Tapanese are meetmg with a much stilter military resistance than they had expected, a resistance wbich may well make the Japanese bethink them as to their chance were the Cinese as well armed and equipped as themselves. On the other hand, this same consideration may well operate to decide the Japanese at all costs to fight the lssue out while in these respects the advantage is so much on their own side. Incidentally it niay dc notcd that the Japanese military authorities are obviously making as much as possible of the menace of active Russian intervention on China's side, spreading reports of the arrival of flights of fighting aeroplanes from Moscow with the men to operate them. In order to bring this home to the Japanese people the suggestion is made that the raiding of their capital itself may well be the ultimate objective of these destructive craft. This new alarm is doubtless dictated by the fact that a very large section of the Japanese people, including many of influential position, are far from being in agreement with the militarist policy towards China, but practically the whole population is animated by strong hostility towards Russia. One of yesterday's messages tolid of the Japanese Foreign Minister, Mr. Koki Hirota, having invited the foreign journalists at Tokio to meet him, but with yery barren results as to his giving them any tangible indication as to what Japan's real and eventual aims in China may be. "My Government," he said, "is prepared to recall its expeditionary forces and j6in hands in friendship the moment the Chinese Government demonstrates its sincerity in rectifying its attitude towards Japan; but we are determined to pursue our declared policy until a fundamental settlement becomes possible." This is quite sufficiently indefinite, but, reading it in the light of what other responsible Japanese statesmen, the Prime Minister included, have recently said, it may be interpreted as seeking nothing short of a "settlement" on terms dictated by a victorious Japan— -one scarcely calculated to result in "joining hands in friendship." Mr Hirota is reported as expre^sing a hope that the foreign Powers interested would co-operate with Japan in her efforts to bring the armed struggle to an end. But as to how they could do this he had nothing to advance beyond the curiously naive suggestion that they could refrain from providing China with munitions, thus helping to assure success to Japanese arms. Mr Hirota at the same time would represent these same Powers as being themselves to a great extent responsible for forcing Japan to action at Shanghai, inasmuch as, according to him, they did nothing to keep the Chinese to a strict observance of the agreement reached in 1932 after the very serious Sino-Japanese disturbances of that time in the same locality. Under that agreement, in which British, American, French and Italian envoys concurred, but without making , their countries actual parties, China undertook to keep her armed forces at a stipulated distance from Shanghai and to refrain from hostile action in the neighbourhood of the city. In case of any doubt arising as to the observance of these terms, the question was to be decided by the representatives of the four Powers named on the Joint Commission governing the International Settlement. In the first place, there is no evidence that the Chinese actually violated this agreement, and, in the next, Japan opened military operations without making any appeal to the Commission. Thus the Japanese Foreign Minister's contention loses all substance and we are forced to the conclusion that Japan has really no other thought than once more to make the most of what seems to her an exceptionally fa- ' vourable opportunity to impose her will upon China while interested Western nations, who might otherwise have actively intervened, are deeply immersed in their own troubles thousanHs of miles away. As to the future status of Shanghai, Mr Hirota says that must be left for future discussion with the other Powers concerned when, of course, he hopes that this now virtually international city will be in the actual occupation of Japan's armed forces.