THE AXIS LOOKS EAST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24416, 30 September 1940, Page 4

THE AXIS LOOKS EAST

The reports that Japan and the Axis Powers were negotiating a pact have received confirmation of a somewhat hysterical nature from Berlin, Rome and Tokio. Herr von Ribbentrop is in the forefront in emphasising the peaceful intention behind what appears to be a military alliance with some economic clauses thrown in. There can be no doubt that both the Axis Powers are anxious to make this accord appear a world-shaking event. Japan, being in the uncomfortable position of desiring to make war on weak peoples without becoming engaged in war with strong peoples, is slightly more guarded in her enthusiasm. Officially it is explained from Tokio that the alliance does not mean early Japanese entry into the European war, but the press comment contains dark threats as to its relevance to intervention in the Pacific by the United States or any other Power. When all the talk is sifted, the pact seems to be designed primarily to discourage the United States from lending assistance, to Great Britain in the West, this being the pressing need of the Axis signatories, and from assisting China, Indo-China and the Netherlands Indies in the East, this being the aim of Japan. It is thus a negative rather than a positive instrument—a threat, not a promise. In fact, as a military agreement it is deprived of much of its immediate portentousness by the circumstance that the military aid the Axis could lend Japan in the Far East, or Japan could afford to "the Axis in the assault on Great Britain.and Egypt, is extremely limited. The first American reaction does not suggest that Washington was unprepared for this development, which was, in fact, generally anticipated. Steps are being taken to increase the extent of material support for Great Britain, and the warnings from the State Department to Japan of American concern at any threat to the status quo in the Far East are explicit. The inclusion by Mr Welles in his reiterated promise that the United States will aid Great Britain of the phrase "and the British dominions" is significant. That there is a grave possibility of war spreading to the Pacific has been recognised since the fall of France and the Netherlands cut off two rich territories from their parent bodies. It is not clear that a Berlin-Rome-Tokio alliance either increases or lessens that danger. On, the other hand, it must produce in the American mind a clearer appreciation of the realities in the Far East, while its effect in. Soviet Russia need not favour the Axis Powers and their new non-Aryan partner.