Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1940. THE NEW PACT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 260, 1 October 1940, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1940. THE NEW PACT.

Having overcome her antipathy to the Grerman-Russiau Pact, which gave Hitler security in launching his attack against Poland, Japan has openly proclaimed her sympathy for the Axis Powers in their war against Democracy. There has never been any well judged concealment of her views and if Hitler, Mussolini, and the rulers of Japan regarded their pact as a shattering blow to the Democracies they have failed signally to estimate world opinion on the course they have been pursuing. The three Powers have entered into a military alliance for ten years, aiming, in von Ribbentrop’s words, at the reconstruction of peace throughout the world. “Any country,” he says, “which joins the alliance will have a voice in the redistribution of territory after the war.” The German radio goes a little further in explaining the' clauses, for the “contracting parties have agreed to support each other militarily by all the means at.their disposal in the event of one being attacked by a Power not yet involved either in the war against Britain or in the Chinesc-Japan-ese war.” Obviously the “Power not yet involved” is meant to refer to the United States, whose reaction to the agreement is a wave of determination v to still further increase the national defences for an emergency which may come with startling suddenness. Mr Sumner Welles’s warning that his country is faced with the gravest danger in its history is not without foundation. But there is another State that must be considered by these associated Powers and that is Russia. The latter is hemmed in a vice under the new scheme of collaboration, . and she x is anxiously watching the Axis developments in South-Eastern Europe where her interests come into conflict with Hitler’s. Any action she might take in the immediate future to preserve her security would bring Japan against her in the East and Russia might well find herself fighting two wars—a spectre that Stalin cannot afford to ignore. In construciing their pact Italy, Germany, and Japan have decided on the “precise spaces in Europe, Asia, and Africa where the word of each will be law.” In other words they are dividing the spoils they hope to receive from the wars in progress. Japan’s “new order” in the Far East is confirmed; she will have Asia to herself; Hitler’s power will be consolidated in Europe, and Mussolini must look afield to Africa, there to consummate his dream of a vast Empire. Each will receive a continent. But counting chickens before'they are hatched is always an unprofitable business and the United States, much as that great republic wishes to avoid war, will not sac-

rifice her tremendous interests in the Far East without a fight if that should eventually be necessary. In the meantime, as Mr Sumner Welles' points out, all their problems there can be solved peacefully. The effort to involve the United States in trouble in the Far East is designed to prevent assistance of the British Empire in 'its struggle against the Axis Powers, but there is no breach, or likely to be one, in this great effort. Japan, in forsaking her traditional friendship for Britain for the specious benefits of Nazism, like Italy, will eventually find that her policy has been barren and costly.