TO-MORROW'S BRUSSELS CONFERENCE.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 33, 2 November 1937, Page 4

TO-MORROW'S BRUSSELS CONFERENCE.

Postponed from !ast Saturday on account oi a Belgian political crisis, the international conference called in terms of what is known as the Nine-f'ower Treaty, signed at Washington nearly 16 years ago, opens at Brussels to-morrow. The broad purpose of the couference is to ciscuss and, if piacticable, devise means whereby active hcstiilties between China and Japan may be brought to an end and a basis for permanent peace in the Far East established. As has been preyiously explained, the original signatories to the Treaty of February 1922 were the United States of •America, Belgium, "the British Empire, China, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and Portugal. Germany at that tiirie was regarded as outside the pale, as was also Russia, and neither took any part in the Washington Conference. Nor/ though invited, is Germany to be represented now at Brussels, no doubt desiring not to appear in any movement that m(ay have the aspect of being adverse to Japan, with whom ?he has entered into a so-called anti-Communist pact obviously directed against Rkssia. So far as concerns Italy the wprd we have had is not altogether clear, but it is generally understood that she, too, will be an absentee, thus confirming the solidarity of her association with Germany. On the other hand Russia s.ends a delegation, a fact that may not make for conclusions being reached that will prove at all acceptable to Japan. ' Though the present ^ conference may be referable to the 1922 treaty it is only in an incidental way, for all the treaty provides is that "whenever a situation arises which, in the opinion of any one of the signatories, involves the application of its stipulafions and renders desirable discussion of such application, then there shall be full and frank communication be- ' tween the contracting parties concerned." There is, however, nothing further as to any 'action to follow upon the results of such discussion. The main points of the treaty consist in a mutual undertaking "to respect the sovereignty, the independence and the territorial and administrative integrity of China" and "to 1 establish and maintain the principle of equal'opportunity for the commerce and industry of all nations throughout the territory of China," none seeking special rights or privileges that would abridge the rights of others. There can, of course, be no question as to Japan having committed flagrant violations of this treaty. Her virtuai annexation of Manchuria, China' s most northern province, provides quite suflicient evidence of this, the fact that she has set up there a puppet state of nominal independence affording only the thinnest of disguises for actual conquest. Now she is pursuing precisely the same course with respect to Chinese provinces lying immediately to the south of Manchuria, or as it is now styled Manchukuo. Beyond- that is, of course, the further fact that the war she is now waging, both in Northern China. and at Shanghai, is designyd to force from China economic concessions that will give Japan a preponderating placs in China1 s industrial and commercial life. Against Japan there is, likewise, the further charge that she has indicated pretty plainly that, in breach oi the League Covenant to which she subscribed, she means for the future to treat as being part of her own territory those islands in the Pacific over which she was g'ranted a "mandate". Moreover, it is no great secret now that she is establishing there naval and air bases that constitute a distinct menace to the trade and traffic of other countries in the Far East. With all these, as well as other, sins against her pledged word lying upon her conscience, it can be readily understood wby Japan should decline to take part in a conference where she could feel scarcely otherwise than as an accused upon trial and with no very good defence to put forward. Under circumstances such as these there cannot but be some difficulty in guessing at the course which proceedings at the conference may take. It does not look as if purely moral suasion would carry very much weight with Japan. There are, however, hints from the United States President about "concerted action" to impose a "quarantine" upon the aggrefcsor liations, which might mean the cutting off of supplies of ma* terial essential to the further prosecution of war. These suggestions are, however, so far of a quite nebulous char&cter, with very manufest difficulties in the way of th'eir effective execution. Possibly of much greater influence towards bringing Japan to her senses will be the speeding up of America's naval expansion and Great Britain's announcement that she means to devote a much larger proportion than heretofore of her navy, now to be greatly strengthened, to permanent service in the North Pacific. These are moves Japan can understand in their bearing on her future.