Japanese Moves in Indo-China

Southland Times, Issue 24239, 24 September 1940, Page 4

Japanese Moves in Indo-China

npHE SITUATION in Indo-China J- has shown more than the usual amount of confusion which seems to be inseparable from Far Eastern affairs. After several weeks of negotiations between a Japanese mission and the French Government of Indo-China, the discussions were said on one side to have become “delicate,” and on the other side to be progressing smoothly. All that could be known clearly was that Japan wanted air s and sea bases, and the right'to send troops to the Chinese border, presumably through the northern province of Tonkin. According to a report printed yesterday, a new set of demands was presented, accompanied by a time limit which gave it the character of an ultimatum. These methods were said to imply no threat to IndoChina’s territorial integrity, or to French sovereignty; but the authorities at Hanoi would have no difficulty in remembering the recent fate of the Baltic States, whose loss of independence was preceded by the surrender of bases. The demands were reported to have been refused, and on Sunday Japanese forces crossed the north-east frontier in an attack on Dongdang which was resisted by the French. The latest message from Hanoi, however, declares that the fighting has ceased and that an agreement has been signed which will permit the Japanese to maintain a garrison of 6000 troops in IndoChina and to use three airports and a strategically important railway. The agreement is obviously directed against China in the first instance: it will allow the Japanese to launch a flank attack on Chungking. But it has a graver significance for Britain and the United States, which cannot remain indifferent to a territorial change which threatens the safety of their Far Eastern bases and possessions.

America Holds Back

The French Foreign Minister said a few days ago that France is “all alone” in the Far- East. This was not strictly true. Chinese troops have been massed on the frontier for some time past: a few weeks ago they were reported to have clashed with two regiments of Japanese. The French authorities were probably forced to decide against accepting this kind of support, however, for it threatened to make Tonkin a new battlefield in the Chinese war. Japanese troops were already on French territory. Moreover, the entire country had been over-run by so-called “traffic examiners,” and the work of peaceful penetration had been facilitated by the presence of

Japanese warships off the port of Haiphong. With Britain fully occupied in Europe and Africa, America was the French colony’s only hope. But although Mr Cordell Hull has informed the Tokyo Government several times that a change in the status quo of Indo-China would be a matter of concern to the United States, there has been no word or hint of a more direct intervention. Unless there are lastminute developments it seems probable that Indo-China will be left to fall into the hands of Japan. While these events are taking place it is difficult not to wonder at what point in Japan’s southward expansion the Americans will be ready to take action, in the form of economic reprisals, against the Far Eastern aggressor. They appear to have had ample time to discover that Notes are not enough.