RUSSIA AND JAPAN.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 July 1928, Page 3

RUSSIA AND JAPAN.

“Japan lias so prepared lier own wav in North-East China that she can easily come to terms with Russia at a low price, and Russia, on her part, puts too high a value on Japan’s friendship to haggle over the price. A Russo-Japanese understanding based upon a compromise of interests in the Far East is not impossible nor improbable.. Rut whither would, it lead in other parts of Asia? And what might he the fate of China if Japan and Russia should make an entente in Manchuria and Eastern Siberia the starting-point for new departures elsewhere? We know that the militarist doctrine of Japanese Imperialism no longer goes unchallenged in Tokio, and that the change of mind, so evident now in the Island Empire, is leading the whole nation to a new reading of its destiny. And from that wc may conclude that Japanese opnion is pliable, eduentable, amenable, to reasonable influence. If so, our hearing towards Japan, and the general trend of public opinion in Europe, will play some part in moulding her mind and in influencing her policy. In a word, the liehaviour ■ot Europe at (ieueva will profoundly affect the action, both of .Moscow and of Tokio, and as the British Commonwealth is more deeply interested in the consequences of Russo-Japanese relations than any other Rower, we cannot ignore the fact that the action ol British statesmen in the League of Nations will play a part in deciding the fate of two continents.”—Sir Frederick White, in the London “Observer.”