JAPAN'S DESIGNS ON AMERICA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 220, 17 March 1914, Page 4

JAPAN'S DESIGNS ON AMERICA.

It seems not improbable that one reason for the reluctance of the United States Government to intervene in Mexico is based upon some apprehension that such a step would precipitate war with Japan. The trouble over the Californian exclusion law, directed again .Japan, has never been settled, In the Japanese Parliament a few weeks ago, Baron Makino, the Foreign Minister, stated that the Mikado's Government had received no reply to its note addressed on August 13 of last .year to the Government of the United States, on the subject of the Californian law. A statement of this kind implies that a reply was expected, and that failure to reply amounts t• a alight. A week later, Rear-Admiral Vreeland, giving evidence before the House Committee on Naval Affairs at Washington, made an earnest appeal for more rapid naval contruction, in order that the United States may keep pace with 'Japan. He repeated what has been frequently asserted, that if Japan were to make a sudden attack she could almost certainly seize the Hawaiian and Philippine Islands, and he is reported to liave acquiesced in the prediction that whenever the United States navy should rank lower than that qf Japan, a demand may be expected for a repeal of the Californian exclusion law —a demand which would, of course, lead to war. Corroboration of the view that relations between Japan and the United States have reached a critical stage comes from a Berlin correspondent, who declared on February 7 that "it is the opinion in the highest military and naval circles the questions at issue between the Uniteu .States and Japan ar : graver than is generally believed, and will become acute the moment the former country decides on military intervention in Mexico." These prophets of evil say that Japan would, of cours_>. wrest the Philippines and Hawaii from America, and would then proceed to attack the Panama Canal, using Honolulu and the coast of Mexico as bases of supply. It is now notorious that General Huerta has been obtaining munitions of war from Japan, and it is alleged that Mexico has now more modern field artillery than the American army has. Count Reventlow, a noted writer on German naval matters, has been advocating a closer understanding between Germany and Japan, and in doing so has stated that President Wilson's Mexican policy has alienated German sympathy from the United States. A leading Austrian paper, tho Vienna Journal, declares that there is imminent danger of war, and points out that in case Japan decides on war it would be to her advantage to lact before -He Panama Canal is opened. The indications ai'e, it says, that Japan will assist President Huerta in Mexico with war materials and money; and it concludes by saying that Japan will turn the tide of emigration from that country. She will shut out the United States and send her emigrants to Mexico, which will create a new danger for the United States. It may thus b« seen how circumspect President Wilson has to be in his dealings w(th the Mexican situation, more especially as the United States army is not—as a matter of fact, never is—prepared to enter upoa a severe campaign with any hope of •nimodiate success. So anarchy, injustice, massacre and outrage must go on unchecked in Mexico, because there is an outstanding iterance between the United States and Japan.